


Alternative Haven

by JCapasso



Series: Alternative Haven [1]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:01:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27685292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: William wasn't immune to the troubles and was wished away along with the troubles. Without him to mess things up, Audrey gets her wish to stay.
Relationships: Duke Crocker/Audrey Parker
Series: Alternative Haven [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025788
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

Audrey woke up on the floor alone and immediately called for Nathan as she sat up and realized that she seemed to be in some kind of storage space. She recognized the architecture of her apartment at least, not that it made her any less confused. She was more than a little irritated that she didn’t have any shoes as she was forced to go find out what was going on, and even more irritated that her new car was gone. Of course, it was. This was clearly going to be one of those ‘Haven days’. She huffed at the idea of the Gull being a bait shop, but since it was currently closed, she only had one choice right now and she started walking down the road.

When she saw the police van…and since when did Haven PD drive vans…she was more than a little relieved. When Duke got out of it, dressed all nice and wearing a badge she couldn’t help but laugh as he walked up and asked, “Ma’am? What are you doing out here?”

“Is this a joke?” she asked through her giggles.

“I don’t know. You tell me. You’re the one walking around in your pajamas with no shoes on,” Duke said, fighting his own amusement. Her laugh was more than a little contagious. “You okay? You need some help?”

“Duke, come on,” she laughed.

“You know my name,” he realized suspiciously. He was rather well-known around here, but the way she said it…like she knew him…it put him a bit on edge.

“Yeah. I’m Audrey. Audrey Parker,” she said nervously figuring out that there was something going on. Especially when she didn’t see the normal mischief in his eyes that she did when he was teasing her and when there was no recognition there, even at her name. “You don’t know me,” she said slowly, trying to come to terms with that and figure out where to go from there.

“Okay, I’m gonna assume that you don’t…have any ID on you,” Duke said, trying to keep himself on track.

“No, I don’t have any ID on me,” Audrey sighed wearily.

“So Miss Parker. Where you heading?” he asked.

“Well I was heading to Haven PD to find Nathan,” she told him. When he showed no recognition for the name she tried again. “Nathan Wuornos.”

Duke shook his head ruefully. “There is no Wuornos at Haven PD. Wanna try again?”

“Okay, listen. This has got to be some kind of Haven thing. I woke up this morning and everything’s different. You’re a cop. I mean you look good as a cop, but you’re still a cop,” she started to explain, noticing the flattered amusement at her compliment that was just pure Duke, but she continued. “The Gull, it isn’t the Gull…Let’s get in the car and we’ll go sort this all out.

“You’re not really making any sense right now…”

“You know about this town though right?” she asked impatiently.

“Ma’am, I know everything about this town. I’m third generation Haven PD,” he explained patiently. When she just looked like she’d been beat over the head with a mallet…or more likely, given the circumstances, had some delusion shattered, he felt bad for her. “Come on. Let’s get you off the side of the road,” he said gently reaching out towards her with a guiding gesture. “Come on,” he coaxed when she didn’t seem to want to move. “Let’s go. It’s alright. You’re gonna be fine,” he assured her. When she reached out to touch his arm, almost like she was making sure that he was real, he accepted it. “Yep. That’s right. Just hop in the back of the car for me.”

“Back?” she couldn’t help but ask incredulously and he relented and let her sit up front. During the drive, she was mostly silent, just trying to take all this in and formulate some kind of theory and when they stopped and Duke started to get out, she realized that she might just be losing her chance. “Seriously, Duke…I think that-that something’s happened to you,” she got out to follow him.

“Says the woman who’s walking around in her pajamas,” Duke pointed out as he started to walk away.

“Okay, listen…if you’re a cop, then why don’t you take me to the station?” she asked. Maybe she would be able to find out more there. Hopefully it was just Duke that was changed then they could get to the bottom of this and fix him.

“You haven’t broken any laws,” Duke said almost amused before he got back on track. “Now I have to make an urgent stop. Now if you agree to get a psych evaluation at the hospital, I will help you out. We will…get you some shoes to start with, and I will help you try to find your friend.”

“Yes,” she breathed out. Whatever it took. She could see /her/ Duke still there under the surface. The one who would always go out of his way to help people, her especially. She would do what he asked and then maybe they could get this figured out.

“But first, I need you to wait in the car while I go take this witness statement,” he said, gesturing to the vandalized billboard.

“Vandalism? That’s what you’re worried about?” she asked incredulously. Since when was that even in the same ballpark as ‘urgent’.

“I know. This town is going to hell,” he huffed. “If I leave you here you going to take off on me?” he asked worriedly.

“Won’t get very far,” she sighed, gesturing to her bare feet as Duke walked off, telling her again to wait in the car. She had no intention of trying to take off. Whatever was going on, she trusted Duke to help her. Even if he didn’t know her. That didn’t mean that she would just wait quietly like a good girl. When she noticed Vince and Dave pull up, she immediately went over to them to try and convince them that something was going on, only to be accused of being Haven’s first homeless person and told that there was no such thing as the troubles. Once Duke got back, the ride to the hospital was mostly spent just trying to wrap her head around that. She sat still for the exam, and then ran into Duke again in the hallway.

“Well…nurses say you’re okay,” he said relieved. At least whatever it was wasn’t some kind of head injury. “Doc’s gonna have to sign off before you’re officially released, but uh…yeah.”

“Were you able to find out anything…” she asked hesitantly.

“Nobody named Nathan Wuornos has ever lived in Haven. I’m sorry,” he said apologetically.

“That’s okay,” Audrey shrugged. “I’ll find him. I always do.” She was sure he was around here somewhere, and wondered for a moment if the docks might be a good place to check. If Duke was the cop, maybe Nathan was the smuggler. She had hoped it would be easier, but oh well.

“Look, um…I don’t know exactly what you’re going through, but uh,” he pulled a business card and a pen out of his pocket and wrote on the card. “You certainly don’t have to do it alone. I’m here. If you need to call. That’s my cell.”

Audrey took it with a bright smile as she shook her head. It seemed that Duke would always be there for her in any universe. She could read him like a book. Even fake him. “I still can’t believe you’re a cop.”

“It’s the hair right?” he gestured to the ponytail. “Yeah the chief hates it too,” he huffed a laugh.

“And so you keep it,” she said with a knowing smirk.

Duke looked at her in confused awe. “Yeah,” he admitted with a chuckle, wondering how she managed to get him so easily.

“Might want to be careful that you don’t get fired,” she whispered conspiratorially.

“Uh, not likely. The chief is my dad,” he pointed out, noticing the freaked out look on her face at that and wondering what it was about, but the nurse came to get her to see the doctor before he could ask.

Audrey pulled herself together and turned back to him. “Okay, well…thanks for everything. Meeting you was really…unexpected,” she said with a smile. Maybe she should just not worry about fixing things. Everyone was better off here. There were no troubles. Everyone was safe. Even Duke was happy, had his parents, or at least his Dad, who clearly wasn’t a serial killer in this world. If she could just find Nathan and make sure that he was okay too, then everything would be great. 

“Well, the feeling’s mutual,” Duke grinned, giving her arm a comforting squeeze as he walked by with an earnest, “Stay safe.” When he couldn’t help but look back at her, he wondered what the hell he was doing. He’d never been one to have a thing for the crazies, but there was just something about her. He put it out of his head for now. She had his number. She would call if she wanted to and if not, oh well. He was probably better off forgetting her anyway.

When Audrey walked into the exam room and realized that the doctor was Nathan. Nathan ‘Hanson’, she was caught even more off guard. Of course. If there were no troubles then everything wouldn’t have gone to hell and he would have been raised by his biological father so his name wouldn’t be Wuornos. When he got called out for another patient, she followed to watch in the window, still trying to come to terms with all the changes in this world, but seeing Nathan’s family just made her more sure than ever that this place was better. That it needed to stay if at all possible. She would miss /her/ Nathan desperately, but this one was happy. In a way she’d never seen her Nathan. Even when they were together. He’d never been troubled, or been through the same challenges and hardships. He was actually free, and even if it meant losing him, she couldn’t bring herself to take that away from him. 

Audrey headed out, picking absentmindedly at the shirt that Duke had gotten for her at the gift shop that felt stiff from not being washed and didn’t smell right, but it was better than the tank top she’d slept in, and the shoes were a little stiff from not being broken in too. She was grateful for all his help and if she was going to try and make a life for herself in this world, she would need more help from Duke. With Nathan out of the picture, he was her only hope. She had nothing here. No clothes, no place to live, no id, no job. She ended up taking a seat in the lobby of the hospital, trying to make a plan. What on earth could she tell Duke…or anyone…that would even begin to explain all this. In the end, she decided that the only thing she could do, especially after her performance this morning, was to try the truth. She would just have to hope that whatever deep down recognition she could see in Duke would be enough to get him to trust her, at least a little bit. She pulled his card out of her pocket and went to the public phone in the lobby to call him and ask if he could meet her for lunch. 

When she got to the café, he was already there and said, “I didn’t think you’d call, but um…I’m glad you did,” he admitted. “Did you find your friend you were looking for?” He wondered if he was going to get that story at all.

“Not exactly,” she said seriously, clearly nervous.

“You know, I meant what I said earlier. I really do /want/ to help you,” he told her earnestly. 

“That’s why I’m here,” she focused clearly on him. “Listen, Haven has a big problem.”

“You have seen the signs right?” he asked amusedly. “This is the safest town in…”

“Okay, there’s a situation that you need to be aware of,” she cut him off. “I don’t know how it happened or if it might change back at some point or what, but…everything here is wrong. I mean…you’re not supposed to be a cop and…”

“Woah,” he held up a hand to stop her, indignation rising in his chest. “I know that we are a small town, but I know how to do my job.”

“Listen, that’s not what I meant, alright?” she said quickly, trying not to be too impatient with him. Duke had never responded well to that. She took a few deep breaths for calm and just said. “Look I just want to help…” The last thing she wanted was for this Haven to disappear. For things to go back to the way they used to be. 

Duke was getting a suspicion of what was going on her and he put on a forced relaxed demeanor, leaning back in his chair. “Okay…I think I know what’s going on. You think I’m Barney Fife because you…are law enforcement too.” He watched for her reactions before continuing. “You know, I found an Audrey Parker in the FBI, but it wasn’t you.” As he saw her discomfort and the way she was looking around nervously, he figured, “You undercover?”

“It’s complicated,” she admitted. 

“Is that so,” Duke huffed skeptically. 

“Look, if you’d just let me explain and quit interrupting me…” she said pointedly. He was clearly the same Duke he’d always been. While it could be endearing sometimes, in situations like this it was a royal pain. 

“Okay. I’m listening,” he sat back and raised his hands in acceptance. 

“Okay, listen, what I’m about to tell you is gonna sound really…”

“Crazy,” he cut her off, finishing the sentence, having heard this line before. “Yeah, I got it.”

She shot him a mild glare at the interruption and he chuckled, but didn’t say anything else. “This whole world. This…isn’t right,” she tried to explain. “My Haven…the real Haven…people can do things…supernatural things, and /we/ call them troubles, so somebody’s trouble turned…everything…into what it is now.”

Duke was fighting with himself whether to believe her or not. It was one of those stories that was too crazy to make up. He leaned forward on the table, trying to keep the nerves out of his voice. “And only you know about this?” he asked skeptically, trying to find something that would tell him one way or the other.

“Yes,” she said, seeing that he wanted to believe her. “See, I’m immune to the troubles. I don’t know why, but I always have been.” 

“Yeah, see, I’m trying to help you here, but this…this is too much,” he shook his head in disbelief as he started to get up. 

“Okay, Duke, I know you!” she called after him desperately. She’d seen him try to trust her. Want to trust her. She couldn’t just let him walk away. “In my Haven you’re…you’re the criminal,” she said the first thing that came to mind. When he gave a disbelieving scoff, she realized that probably wasn’t the best way to convince him. “Yes, with the same long hair and you-you-you do what you want…you live on a boat for god’s sake.” She knew how much he loved the sea. If anything would convince him, that would.

“A boat,” he said skeptically.

“Yeah,” she said, calming down. She could see that it had sparked something. “And…we’re friends. We /trust/ each other,” she said earnestly. She could see him hesitate for a minute before deciding to just continue walking away and she wracked her brain for something…anything…that she could say to stop him. Some way to prove that she knew him. He was one of her best friends for god’s sake. There had to be something he had told her that would still be valid. His childhood was clearly completely different, but…that was it. “The second-chancers,” she called out before he was too far away. 

“What?” he asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at her. 

Audrey could tell by his reaction that it meant something to him and knew that she was on the right track. “You and the two brothers…Jeff and Bill…ugh, what were their last names?” she asked the last part to herself as she tried to remember. 

“McShaw,” Duke said quietly as he sat back down, scrutinizing her much more seriously. “What do you know?” 

“Well, in /my/ Haven…when you were a kid, you had a pellet gun. When Jeff tried to cook it, it escaped and went flapping around scaring the hell out of all three of you. Bill took a pocketknife to try and put it out of it’s misery, but Jeff stopped him and said that it deserved a second chance and then used the pocketknife to make you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat instead. Ever since, you always give each other second chances and called each other the second chancers,” she remembered the story as he’d told it.

“No one else knows that,” Duke said suspiciously. 

“I told you. We were friends,” Audrey said gently. 

“Even if we were friends, I can’t believe I would have told you that. It was like…a pact that we never tell anyone that story.”

“You didn’t really have much of a choice,” Audrey said with a wince. 

“Why not?” He wasn’t sure what to think, but he was starting to lean towards believing her. That didn’t mean that he didn’t want to understand. 

“In my Haven, Jeff was murdered,” she said apologetically, feeling bad at the look of pain on his face. 

“No one gets murdered in Haven,” Duke said in shock. 

“My Haven was very different,” Audrey said sadly. “It wasn’t the nice safe place this is. It was…bad.”

“The trouble thing you mentioned,” Duke remembered. 

“Yeah. That. See, I was a cop there, so my partner Nathan and I were investigating the murder and you were the last one to see him alive, so…”

“You thought I did it?” he asked horrified, remembering what she said about him being a criminal.

“No,” Audrey shook her head quickly. “Not at all. I mean, we hadn’t known each other very long at that point, and yeah, you were a criminal, but not that kind of criminal. I knew you weren’t a killer. Not by a long shot. I mean, I couldn’t rule out a fight that got out of hand or self-defense or something, but…”

“Yeah, okay. I get it,” Duke cut her off, not wanting to hear any more of that. “I was the last to person to see him alive and you needed to info. I know the drill. But how did it lead to that story?” 

“I’m not gonna give you the details, and I doubt you’d want them anyway, but the pocket-knife was peripherally involved,” Audrey told him. “Does this mean you believe me?” 

“Yeah,” Duke sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I kinda have to. I mean…as crazy as it sounds…so why tell me?” He had to know. “You asking me to help you change it back or something?” 

“No,” Audrey shook her head. “No, just the opposite. I need to find who caused it and try and make sure that they ‘don’t’ change it back.”

“You don’t want to go home?” he asked with raised eyebrows. 

“Haven is my home. And I’ve dedicated my life to protecting it from the troubles and now…they’re gone. Changing it back means bringing all that pain and death back. It means killing all the people that didn’t survive there. All the people who never existed because their parents didn’t exist and so on. /This/ is everything I’ve ever worked for, and yeah, it happened in a weird way, but…”

“No, I get it,” Duke nodded. “It makes sense. But that still doesn’t answer the question of why you’re telling me.”

“Because in my Haven, whenever I needed help, there were only two people that I could always count on, no matter what, to have my back. One of them is a completely different person and I can’t recognize anything of the Nathan I knew in him, but you…you’re still the same Duke…”

“I thought I was a criminal there,” he scoffed. 

“You were. But only in the strictest sense of the word. You were a rebel. You did things your own way, regardless of the legalities, and you had your reasons. It’s kind of a long story. But you were more than that too. You were also a hero. You were someone who would always rush in to save the day whenever anyone was in trouble. You saved…more lives than I can count. You saved /my/ life more than once. And I’ve saved yours just as much. No matter what job you do, you’re still you.” 

“Okay, so you need help,” Duke gave an embarrassed smile as he looked away and tried to get back on track. He wanted more information about this other Haven, but it could wait. “What do you need?”

“Well, since I apparently never existed in this Haven, I don’t have anything but what I was wearing when I appeared. No id, my apartment is a storage room above a bait shop, my clothes, everything I own…”

“Okay, so here’s the deal,” Duke made a decision. “I’m gonna need to get back to the station soon, but if you trust me…”

“I’ll always trust you, Duke,” she couldn’t help but interrupt. 

“Enough to offer you a place to stay for tonight,” he continued ahead, ignoring her statement. “You can sleep on my couch. I’ll grab you a book on the history of the town and there are a couple weeks worth of old newspapers in my apartment. Maybe you can find some clues there and when I get off work, we can talk some more and see what we can figure out for longer term. Okay?” 

“Okay,” Audrey let out a relieved breath. “That’s great. Perfect. I can’t thank you enough for this, Duke. Really.” 

“You’re welcome,” Duke’s lips twitched into a smile. “But as a cop yourself I’m sure you understand that I still need to make sure I’m not harboring some kind of fugitive or something…” 

“No, yeah. I get that,” Audrey nodded, too relieved that he believed her and was willing to help her to be offended. She understood why he had to be sure. She drained the last of her water from her cup, used her napkin to wipe it off, and then carefully wrapped her hand around the glass so he could get clean prints before sliding it over to him. “That good?” 

“Perfect,” he smirked, using a napkin to pick up the glass as he pulled an evidence bag from his pocket and placed it inside. “Now, you order yourself something to eat…on me, of course…while I run and get you the book and then I’ll take you back to my place before I have to go back into the station. I’ll pick up some dinner on the way home, so don’t worry about that either.” 

Audrey nodded as he walked off and couldn’t deny how hungry she was. After the volcano disaster yesterday they hadn’t really had time to eat and she hadn’t eaten this morning for obvious reasons so she gladly ordered a big lunch to go and Duke was back just in time to pay for it. When he let her into his apartment, she couldn’t help her snort of amusement at the nautical theme. Some things never changed. She wasn’t at all surprised by how clean it was. The Rouge had always been clean too. “I like it,” she said. 

“Good. Bathroom’s through there,” he pointed at one of the two doors in the place. “Make yourself at home and I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Thanks again, Duke. For all this and for…for believing me.” He just nodded as he left, leaving her to look around. She assumed the other door was to his bedroom and couldn’t resist opening it to take a look. She wasn’t snoopy enough to actually go in or start rummaging through anything, but her basic curiosity at least couldn’t be denied. After a quick stop in the bathroom…she had drank a lot of water to keep her stomach from protesting the lack of food…she went into the dining area and sat down at the table to eat. She had to look through the cupboards to find a glass, since she hadn’t thought to order a drink, and then there was a bit more looking around to find the trash can in a small closet area at the side of the kitchen. 

When Duke got back to the station, he headed to the lab and gave them the glass. “I need you to run prints and DNA on this in a rush. Make sure neither of them are in the system, but keep it quiet. The results come only to me.” 

“Sure thing, detective Crocker,” Dr. Carr promised and got straight to work. One thing about a town like Haven, there wasn’t actually any backlog. There were a few things she was still working on getting evidence from, but it was all minor issues like shoplifting and trespassing, so it was no trouble to put them on the backburner for something more important. 

Just before Duke was about to leave for the day, he was called into the chief’s office. “What’s this about off the books prints and DNA? Is this about the vandalism case?” 

“No, it’s something else,” Duke shook his head, composing how much he was going to tell his father. “I found a woman just outside of town this morning running around in her pajamas and no shoes. She seemed like she was running from something or going through something. I helped her out and I’m letting her crash on my couch tonight until we can figure something else out, but I wanted to make sure that whatever she was running from wasn’t the law.” 

“Okay. That makes sense. Why the secrecy though?” 

“Because if she’s running from something or someone else that’s trying to hurt her, I don’t want to lead them here,” Duke made it up on the spot. 

“You don’t trust me?” Simon asked pointedly. 

“No, I do. Obviously. I didn’t tell her to keep it secret from you specifically. Just in general. As far as the situation as a whole, I wanted more information before bringing you in. I was gonna try and get her to open up a little more and see if I can figure out what’s going on with her tonight,” Duke explained, knowing that any other answer would cause him problems he didn’t need and if this ‘Audrey’ was going to stay in town, then he would need to know something soon anyway. He couldn’t get her clean IDs or anything himself. 

“Okay. Good enough. Just let me know if you need anything,” Simon nodded and tossed him the folder with the results. “And she’s clean, other than some kind of anomaly in her DNA that Dr. Carr couldn’t explain, but whatever she’s running from, it’s not the law.” Duke opened the folder and flipped through, glad to see that his father was right. He nodded and was about to leave when the chief said, “And Duke…That was a good thing you did. I’m proud of you.” 

“Thanks Chief,” Duke gave him a playful salute before heading out. It was time for a much more in-depth talk with his houseguest.


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of Audrey’s afternoon was spent flipping through the book from the gift shop and the back issues of the Haven Herald that were stacked in his recycling box. She grabbed a pen from his word puzzle book on the side table so that she could start underlining events that she knew were different and circling significant names that she was unfamiliar with, and by the time Duke got home, she had quite the mess spread across the table. He raised an amused eyebrow at the sight and she smiled sheepishly at him. “Sorry about the mess. I was just…”

“It’s fine. I do the same when I’m trying to put things together,” Duke waved off the apology. “I hope you like Chinese…”

“Yeah. That’s great. Thanks,” she smiled brightly as she tried to at least straighten up the papers before going to the kitchen where he was unloading the bag. 

“So, did you find anything?” Duke asked once they were settled. 

“Nothing relevant to the situation, but I’m getting a better handle on how things work here as a whole,” she shrugged. 

“How so?” he asked curiously. 

“Well it seems like random chance with so many people as to how similar they are to the ones I knew. I mean, I didn’t really have a whole lot of friends. I’m not really the social type, but I know a lot of people in passing and some of them are doing the same jobs and married to the same people and so on, but some are completely different,” she explained. “Like Nathan…he’s nothing like the Nathan I knew and you’re pretty much the same…”

“So you did find him then?” Duke asked. 

“Yeah. I actually forgot that in the old Haven he’d been adopted, but he wasn’t here so he was Nathan Hansen instead of Wuornos.” Duke nodded in understanding, so she continued. “Then there’s Vince and Dave…”

“You knew them well?” he asked. 

“Pretty well yeah. The only people I knew better were you and Nathan. But they’re kinda the same, just not as…hard as the ones I knew.” 

“They’re pretty tough old guys,” Duke chuckled. “Don’t let their demeanors fool you.”

“No, I know,” Audrey chuckled. “That much is the same. Their demeanors I mean. But it’s obvious that they haven’t seen the same horrors or been through the same struggles…I mean…where I come from Vince is the leader of a militia type group that protects the troubled people.”

“Okay, I see what you mean,” Duke laughed trying to imagine gentle old Vince that way. “So, I have to ask…you and me…in your Haven…were we…” he trailed off, not quite sure how to put it politely. It had been bugging him all day. The way she had been so full of praise for his other self and how much she trusted and depended on him and he couldn’t help but wonder if that had something to do with the way he was so drawn to her too. 

“No?” Audrey tried to say but it came out more like a question. 

“That didn’t sound very sure,” Duke said amusedly. 

“It’s…complicated,” she blushed and looked away. 

“I’m good with complicated,” he told her, hoping that she would tell him more. 

“Well…I mean…there was ‘something’ but…I don’t know. I mean, we got close at one point, but then…you pushed me away. And then you started playing matchmaker for me and Nathan, so…”

“So you and Nathan were together?” he guessed. 

“Yeah. I guess so. I mean, it was still pretty new before all this and with a new disaster every few days trying to find time together was a nightmare, but yeah,” she admitted. 

“And now you’re stuck in a place where he’s so different,” Duke said sadly. “Maybe he’s not as different as you think. Maybe if you get to know him…”

“He’s married here. And has a kid,” Audrey told him. 

“Ah. Okay,” Duke nodded understandingly, filing all that information away to think about later. “But you haven’t found any patterns or anything?”

“No. Not really. I’m not even sure if we should be looking at people who are more similar to the ones I knew that could have come over too or the people who are more different who are trying to live a fantasy,” she sighed in frustration. “Is there anything you’ve noticed? Something different today that seems out of place?” 

“Now that you mention it…maybe,” Duke said thoughtfully. 

“Okay…” she said waiting for more. 

“The vandalism. I mean, there’s always the minor petty crimes, but that’s not something we’ve ever had to deal with before. Three different places were vandalized, and the same person’s face was scratched out on all the signs, but I know the guy in the pictures. He’s not the type to have enemies like that.” 

“Okay. That might be something. What can you tell me about him?” Audrey asked excitedly. 

“He and his wife own the local real estate company. He’s a member of a few different organizations in town. All around good guy,” Duke told her, not sure what kind of information might spark something. 

“Wait a minute,” Audrey said getting a spark of recognition as she got up from the table and went for his stack of mail, looking for the flyer that she’d gotten a glimpse of. “That them?” she asked, showing it to him. 

“Yeah. That’s them. Why? What are you seeing that I’m not?” Duke asked curiously. 

“The woman there. Her name is Suzy. Where I come from, she’s married to a man named Cliff…she was hurt yesterday when a volcano erupted by the library…”

“Wait…a volcano? In Haven?” Duke asked confusedly. 

“Long story, but yeah,” Audrey dismissed the idea distractedly as she turned over the flyer. “An open house tomorrow. I need to be there.” 

“You think Suzy’s the cause of this?” 

“The cause or the catalyst. Not sure yet,” Audrey told him. 

“Okay. I’m coming with you to the open house,” he said seriously. 

“No, it’s fine. I can…”

“Let me remind you, that I’m the cop here,” he said impatiently. “No matter what you were in your Haven, here you’re a civilian. You’re not walking into a potentially hostile situation alone, not to mention you don’t even have the authority to be asking questions.” 

Audrey huffed and crossed her arms. “Okay. Fine. Just…I know more about the troubles than you so just…follow my lead.”

“To a point,” Duke said firmly, not willing to back down. 

“Okay,” Audrey realized that was the best she was going to get. 

“So since we’re pretty much stalled on this until tomorrow, tell me more about your Haven. Starting with…a volcano?” 

“Yeah. See, the troubles are kinda like curses that run in families, but something was happening to cause the troubles to escalate and even spread recently. Families that had never had the troubles suddenly getting them. People who already had them having them kick into overdrive. This particular one caused someone’s memories to sort of…take on a life of their own. Before she would remember her trip to Hawaii and get sand in her shoes, but once it was amplified…”

“A volcano,” Duke shuddered at that thought. “So it wasn’t intentional then?” 

“No,” Audrey shook her head. “I’ve helped dozens of troubled people, and almost none of them have ever hurt anyone on purpose. The troubles are usually activated by strong emotion like anger, guilt, fear, grief, etcetera. They can’t control it. That’s where I came in. I had a knack for talking them through it, calming them down, and helping them find the trigger so they could get it under control.”

“But you never did with the volcano lady?” 

“No. Sand in the shoes wasn’t exactly a priority when people were dying left and right from troubles running amuck even if she /had/ actually told anyone about it,” Audrey explained. “None of us had any way to know that it would escalate like that out of the blue.” 

“So this Haven…it could be from an escalated trouble too then?” Duke suggested. 

“Maybe,” Audrey considered the idea. Maybe someone had done something like this on smaller scale and then it blew up to this. 

“So what’s the plan then? If we’re not talking this person /out/ of their trouble, then why do we need to find them?” 

“Because if they are behind the vandalism, then they’re obviously unhappy about something…I wonder if it’s Suzy’s husband from old Haven. Cliff. That could explain it…” her mind went off on a tangent, but Duke snapped his fingers in front of her face to bring her back on track. “Right. Anyway. We need to help him accept what’s happening so he doesn’t go around making more changes or even change it back to the way it was. Besides, we still need to help him learn to control his trouble either way so there are no more accidents like this.”

“And you’re sure that controlling it won’t automatically change it back? I kinda like it here.”

“Me too,” Audrey huffed a laugh. “And no. If he can control it, then he can keep it like this too.” 

“Okay. We’ll track him down and convince the guy that his wife doesn’t want him anymore and to get over it,” he put it as bluntly as he did so that she would fully understand what it was that she was proposing, not because he didn’t feel for the guy. 

Audrey winced at his wording and could see what he was doing. “Yeah, I wasn’t planning on putting it like that.” 

“Okay, so assuming this works and we can keep this world…what next?” 

“How do you mean?” she asked curiously. 

“Well, first of all, are you planning to stay in town?” 

“Haven is my home,” she told him earnestly. 

“Okay, then like you mentioned before, you have nothing. You don’t even exist here. You have no ID so you can’t get a job. You have no money, no place to live…”

“Yeah. I know,” she sighed heavily. “And honestly, I have no idea what to do. I don’t even have any money to get into a poker game to win a boat,” she couldn’t help but joke. 

“Huh?” Duke asked confused. 

“Sorry. I was just thinking about how I could pull an ‘old Haven Duke’ and become an outlaw, and remembered how you…he…whatever…won his boat in a poker game,” she chuckled. 

“Yeah, you mentioned a boat. I did always want one. Though without the criminal part obviously. Back to the original issue for now, though I do have more questions about the other me. I had to tell the chief a little bit about you since he noticed me running your prints and DNA. Since I implied that you were running from something or someone we could maybe use that.”

“What do you mean?” she asked intrigued. 

“Well…how about this…you were a small town cop that stumbled into something big and saw something you weren’t supposed to see. They didn’t have the resources to protect you and you didn’t have enough evidence to bring in any big guns, but the bad guys were still after you so you took off,” he worked up the narrative. 

“Yeah, okay. And it has the benefit of being mostly true, so there’s that. But how will that story help me other than get me some sympathy and maybe some charity? It won’t help me get ID or a job or anything and while I can grudgingly accept a little charity to get me started, I’m not living off it forever,” Audrey said seriously. 

“No, I know. I wouldn’t suggest it. I’m saying, I’ll take the story to the chief. He’s got contacts and could maybe get you some witness protection level identity. You can even keep your name since no one knows it’s your real one and no one is /actually/ looking for you,” Duke suggested. 

“I…actually…kinda like that idea. If it works. Are you sure he would be willing to help?” she asked worriedly, not having the best opinion of Simon Crocker from her old reality. 

“Why wouldn’t he?” Duke asked, narrowing his eyes as he realized there was something she wasn’t saying. 

“No reason,” she shook her head. 

“Come on. Don’t start holding back on me now. If you’ve got an issue with my dad, I’d rather know in advance,” Duke coaxed. 

“It’s nothing. It’s just…the Simon Crocker of the old Haven…wasn’t really…um…yeah, he’s different here. Just like a lot of people. I get that. I’ll get over it,” Audrey told him. 

“Does it have anything to do with what you said about me having my reasons for being a criminal?” Duke asked curiously. 

Audrey sighed heavily. “Are you sure you really want to know? I mean…it’s bad. Like really bad.” 

“I’m sure,” Duke told her. He’d never believed in sticking his head in the sand and he wanted to understand Audrey and that meant understanding her relationships with other people and the differences between the worlds. 

“Okay. Fine,” she sighed. If she was going to be depending on him so much to help her get her start in this world, it wouldn’t hurt anything to be open and honest. “Just remember, that world was very different.” 

“I know,” Duke rolled his eyes, wondering how bad it could actually be. 

“Do you want to know your reasons for being a criminal or your dad’s story first? They’re only tangentially related,” she asked. 

“Why don’t we start from the beginning, so his story first,” Duke told her as they moved their conversation over to the couch. 

“Okay, so I mentioned that the troubles ran in families. Well your family was troubled too, but in a different way than the rest. The Crocker Family Curse, as you called it, could kill the troubles in other families.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“There’s always a catch,” Audrey said regretfully. “You had to murder someone to do it. When a Crocker killed someone with an active trouble, it took the trouble from the entire family and it couldn’t be passed on anymore. You…you only used it in the most extreme situations. When there were hundreds of lives at stake and literally no other way to save them. Your dad though…and his dad, and way back since the start of the troubles five hundred years ago, weren’t so discerning.”

“You’re telling me that my father was a serial killer,” Duke said in shocked disbelief. 

“Basically, yeah,” Audrey said apologetically. “And I was his number one target…I guess since I was trying to help the troubled people instead of killing them…”

“But we were still friends?” Duke asked, trying to wrap his head around that. “How did that work? Did I help you hide from him or something? How would that even work with you being a cop?” 

“The first thing you should know about that is that I’m not as young as I look. I’m not really sure why or how it works, but there was some kind of twenty-seven year cycle. I would go into this ‘barn’ that was really some kind of alternate dimension and that would take the troubles away, but they always came back and I would come out of the barn with a new personality and new memories, not knowing anything about my previous lives. I would work to help the troubles for a while so that I could ‘recharge’ the keeper called it, and then go back in and take the troubles away again. When that cycle got disrupted thanks to Nathan killing the keeper to stop me from leaving is when things started going haywire.” 

“Okay, I can’t say I completely understand all that, but I think I get the gist. But how does that relate to the Crockers?” 

“Because for at least my last three lives, possibly more, I’ve been at the top of the Crocker hit list and your father even left you a note in his kill journal ordering you to kill me. My last life I was Lucy and when your father came after me, I had to kill him in self-defense. I don’t know the details of that one since no one else was there as far as I know. Before that I was Sarah and your grandfather tried to kill me. Someone else nearby tried to stop him, but got beaten in the fight. It gave me a chance to get a gun and kill him right before he killed me. Both me and the bystander tried to talk him down, but he wouldn’t listen and I didn’t have a choice. I’m guessing it was the same with your father because no matter what life I’m leading, the core part of my personality, my desire to help and protect people, always stays the same. I would never kill anyone unless I didn’t have a choice.” 

Duke took a few deep breaths as he took that all in. She had killed his father in that other world. And his grandfather. No, not her. A past life of hers. She didn’t even have the memories of it. That was different. And his father was different too. His father would never be a serial killer. “Okay…so Lucy killed my father…how old was I?” 

“You were eight,” she told him. “Which brings us to your descent into criminal activities.” 

“Hang on,” he told her getting up and heading to the kitchen to grab a bottle of bourbon and two glasses. “This needs some fortification.” 

“Yeah. Good thinking,” she chuckled tossing back her glass at the same time he did. While he refilled them both, he nodded for her to go ahead. “So, I know from Nathan that your mother took custody of you after your father died, but you never mentioned her at all and Nathan said that he never actually saw her around.”

“Yeah my mom split not long after I was born,” Duke huffed. “I haven’t seen her since. I take it Nathan and I were friends in that world?” 

“Yeah, and I think I figured out how that changed if you’re interested?” She got the feeling that they could use a lighter story interlude before the heavier stuff. 

“Why not?” he shrugged. 

“Nathan was troubled too, and his wasn’t one that only activated in adults. He couldn’t feel anything. Touch, pain, nothing. You two were eight when his activated, before your father died. During a sledding trip he was going too fast down the hill and hit a tree head on and he was a mess, but he didn’t even notice. His arm was broken so badly the bone was sticking out of his coat. Most of the kids there freaked out and started throwing up or ran away, but you didn’t. You helped him and took him to the hospital.” 

“I think I remember a kid breaking his arm sledding around that time. He definitely felt it though. Screamed bloody murder,” Duke chuckled. “I’m not sure who it was that went to get help, but it wasn’t me.”

“I’m guessing the fact that he wasn’t walking around like a zombie who didn’t even know anything was wrong kept the rest of the kids from freaking out as badly, so you didn’t need to play the hero and you two never became friends because of it,” Audrey rationalized. 

“That makes sense,” Duke nodded. “But anyway, mom took custody but then bailed. Probably just showed up long enough to pick up the welfare checks knowing her,” he grumbled. 

“Yeah, so you were basically on your own since you were eight. You’ve let slip a few things about being homeless for a while and had to learn to lie, cheat, and steal to survive. It wasn’t like an eight year old could get a job, after all, and it just escalated from there. I don’t know any details, but you hinted that you got in deeper than you wanted to and did some things you weren’t proud of in the past, but by the time we met, you weren’t so bad.”

“But I was still a criminal,” Duke half asked. 

“Like I said before, only in the strictest sense of the word. You were a smuggler, but nothing major like guns or drugs or human trafficking. You also owned a bar slash restaurant. Where the bait shop is now. The Grey Gull you called it. I lived in the apartment upstairs and your boat was usually docked right outside. I’m sure you conducted some of your more illicit business in the bar, but you always kept a very low profile.”

“I would have to with a cop living upstairs,” Duke joked. 

“Pretty much, yeah,” she laughed. “We probably could have dug and got something on you, but by then we knew you well enough to know that you didn’t cross any major lines. Nothing worth digging into when we were spending all our time trying to actually save lives. And especially since you were right there with us helping us save those lives. That more than made up for any of the minor laws you broke that we couldn’t even catch you at anyway.” 

“Okay, that’s good,” Duke sighed with relief. He had been worried that she was a dirty cop or something, but he could accept that explanation and just changed the subject. “So, if you keep coming back as new people with new memories, who are you really? And where do you get your memories from if they’re not real? How does that even work?” 

“I don’t know who I really am. Or should I say, who I started out as. I know who ‘Audrey Parker’ is. I have little flashes of memories from Lucy thanks to hypnotherapy. But just a few quick images and getting that much almost killed me when something ruptured in my brain so I stopped pushing. I had some people tell me about Sarah. When the cycle was interrupted they were in the process of making me a bartender named Lexi, but it never…finalized, I guess would be the way to put it, so I still have all those memories, but they’re more like a fantasy or a dream. As for where I get the memories, best I can tell they’re copied from actual people. I met the real Audrey Parker…the FBI agent you found, and confirmed that they are actually her memories that I have right up until I…came back to this world I guess. I also met the real Lucy Ripley when I was trying to learn about myself. I’m guessing the real Sarah Vernon is dead by now, or at least extremely old, but I never went looking for her. And I have no idea how it works. The only one who knew was the ‘keeper’ as I call him and he was killed.” 

“That’s pretty crappy,” Duke said sympathetically. “But at least Audrey Parker is a common enough name that you can keep it. So you have the memories and stuff of two people right now?” 

“Yeah. And it got really confusing for a while, let me tell you. I still ended up getting some things from Lexi…like my ability to knock back shots,” she chuckled as she held out her glass for yet another refill which he did with a laugh. “It took a while for me to find a balance, but now I’m mostly Audrey with a Lexi twist.”

“But you don’t get confused about who you are or anything?” Duke asked worriedly, wondering if it was anything like split personalities. 

“I did for the first few days after I got spit out early. And sometimes, especially when I’m drinking, my personality becomes more like Lexi, but most people get a little more ‘free’ when they’re drinking. If you mean do I ever think I /am/ Lexi or start talking about her memories like my own, no.”

“Because they’re more like a dream or a fantasy,” he nodded, getting what she meant by that now. 

“Exactly…oops,” she giggled as she sloshed a little of her drink. She tossed it back and finished it before Duke pulled the glass from her hand. 

“And I think that’s our cue that you’ve had enough,” he said amusedly. “It’s getting pretty late anyway. Let me get the couch made up for you.” He put the alcohol away, pretty buzzed himself, but not overly so, before he went and got spare bedding from his closet. While he was doing that, she got up and cleaned up their forgotten dinner mess, putting the leftovers in the fridge and throwing away the trash. By the time she was done, the couch was ready. “If you need anything just knock. I’m a pretty light sleeper,” he told her. 

“Okay. Night Duke. And thanks. Sorry if I threw too much at you tonight.”

“It’s fine. I asked for it,” he chuckled. “Goodnight, Audrey,” he told her as he went to his room and all but collapsed on his bed. He had been right about it being late, but not even the alcohol was letting him sleep for all that was flying through his mind. He quickly put aside everything she told him about his family in that other world. It didn’t happen and it wasn’t them, so there was nothing to even consider. He would have asked if they were /anything/ like who they are now, like he was so similar to his other self except on the surface, but since she didn’t know there wasn’t any point bringing it up. He thought about what she’d said about how that Nathan guy was supposedly his best friend and how she thought it changed and it helped him realize that even such a minor change like that could have so many consequences. It made him wonder how /anyone/ was even /similar/ to the ones she knew. He did recognize the man she described him as though. He could see how he would become what he did there in those circumstances and was glad that, in this world, he hadn’t lost his father. Clearly there were some parts of himself that even that couldn’t change though. He liked the idea that, even as a criminal, he was all about helping and protecting people. He wanted to find out more about his other self, but that could wait until another day. Once he had processed a little more. He found the subject more than a little interesting. 

The main thing on his mind was Audrey herself. And his other self’s relationship with her. The way he felt like he was persistently drawn to her was more than a little unsettling, but he felt the need to try and figure it out. He wondered if his other self had felt the same thing and if he had tried to figure it out, or maybe he was just not as well-adjusted and too used to running away. He thought about what she’d said about them. They’d gotten close but he’d pushed her away. Was that just thinking that he didn’t deserve her because he was just a criminal? Or did he know that his best friend had a thing for her too and was trying to do the honorable thing? That would fit with what she said about him pushing them together afterwards. Maybe it was a combination of both. He wondered how ‘close’ they’d gotten. What she’d meant by that. He might ask her one day, but for the moment he’d rather not know. He knew enough to know that she was right that there was ‘something’ there, even now, but he wanted to figure out his own feelings without the confusion of mixing his other self in there too. He wanted to figure out what it was about her that had dug so deep so quickly. 

It took him a little while of turning it over in his mind before he realized that it was because she /knew/ him. And she still cared. She still depended on him and trusted him. Sure he could argue that she knew his other self, but he’d seen enough to know that it translated well enough. Her knowing that part of the reason he kept his hair was because his dad hated it. Knowing exactly when to push him and when to back off. Knowing how he would feel at each point of her story and when she needed to be blunt and when she should hedge around the issue. Being around her was just so…easy, that way. And it seemed easy for her too. Like she was so used to him…comfortable even. He didn’t know her nearly that well, but he found himself looking forward to getting there. From what he knew so far, he definitely found her impressive. Her strength and compassion. Willing to give up everything she had for the good of everyone else and make a whole new life here. He didn’t usually let people get this close, but she had walked into his life already behind his walls and it was both off-putting and exhilarating and he had no idea how to handle it. Either way, he had time. It wasn’t like he could expect her to get over her old boyfriend overnight and she was dealing with a lot right now without having to worry about trying to figure out a new relationship on top of it. That was his last thought before he finally drifted off to sleep, only three hours before his alarm. 

The next morning, he was more than a little exhausted, but had too much to do to even consider calling out of work. He made his way for a quick shower and got ready. He grabbed a granola bar on his way out, having snoozed his alarm too many times to have a real breakfast, and left Audrey a note that he would pick her up at ten for the open house, set the alarm on his burner phone for nine, hoping that was enough time for her, and left it on the table before he slipped out the door. 

Once he got to the office, he started pulling up info on his computer, having figured out a few holes in Audrey’s story. He hated lying to the chief, but there was no way he would believe the truth. Hell, he could barely believe the truth himself and he had proof. Just not enough proof that would convince his father. That meant he had to fill in all the gaps in the story before bringing it up. First thing was to find a small town that had a recent unsolved crime that was big enough to have made her run. Then to get the information on the chief of police in that town that could verify that he’d talked to him. He didn’t think the chief would go so far as to check behind him…at least he hoped not. Once he had everything he needed to confirm the story, he went and knocked on his father’s office door. 

“Duke. You get her talking?” Simon asked curiously. 

“Yeah. I did,” Duke sighed as he went to sit down. “Turns out that she was a small town detective out in Nebraska until she witnessed something big. She didn’t give details, but I did some digging and I’m pretty sure this was it,” he handed over the file he printed up, giving his father a minute to look it over. 

“It mentions an eye-witness, but other than that they’ve got no evidence. It’ll never stick,” Simon realized. 

“Yeah. Exactly. But unfortunately, she was noticed and they didn’t have the resources to protect her and not enough evidence to call in any heavy hitters. She couldn’t even do her job anymore, so she took off. Got her chief to scrub any mentions of her from the database, but an undercover identity has too many holes for a real life, so she didn’t have a whole lot of options.” 

“Okay, so why come here of all places? Any why was she wandering around in her pajamas and no shoes?” Simon asked. 

“That’s a very good question, and the first one I asked too,” Duke bluffed. “She hadn’t really had a destination in mind and had been hitchhiking her way as far as she could get from home. You know how dangerous hitchhiking can be, especially for a young woman alone, and she got one of /those/ guys. She managed to get away, but had to leave all her stuff and when she lost one of her shoes in the fight, she tossed the other one to make it easier to walk.” 

“Sounds like the poor girl’s had a rough time of it,” Simon said sympathetically. “I’m guessing you verified all this?” 

“Yeah. I had her use my burner phone to call her old chief. Since there aren’t any records of her anymore, I had to go straight to the source. And yes, I got his info and the first thing I did when I got in this morning was confirm that it was him I was talking to,” Duke explained. 

“So to make sure I understand how things set correctly, she has no usable identity, no money, no belongings, no friends, and nowhere to go,” Simon summed up. 

“Pretty much,” Duke nodded. 

“Phew,” he shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to be her right now. What’s your impression of her? She good people?” He trusted Duke’s opinion more than most. His gut was more accurate than any psych profile Simon had ever seen. 

“Yeah. She is. She’s tough as nails, team player…mostly, and she was one of those cops who are in it for nothing more than to help people and keep them safe.”

“You trust her?” 

“Yeah, I do,” Duke nodded. 

Simon scrutinized his son for a moment. Duke didn’t trust easily, so if he trusted her that meant something. Unless he was just letting her pretty face sway him, but Duke had never been the type to fall for that. He could spot a con a mile away and clearly he’d done his due diligence, even going so far as to talk to her old boss. “Okay. I’ll make some calls, see about getting her a good identity,” Simon decided. His old college roommate worked for the U.S. Marshalls and they’d kept in touch over the years. If anyone could work that he could. They’d all seen too many people in just her situation fall through the cracks and the fact that she had been a cop would make him more willing to go out on a limb. 

“Thanks chief,” Duke said relieved. “That would be helpful.”

Simon opened his desk drawer and pulled out the petty cash box and handed Duke two hundred dollars. “This should be enough to get her some basic clothes and necessities. She can pay it back if she can once she’s settled. She planning to stay in town or she know yet?” 

“She’ll probably stay if she can. She said she likes it here and is grateful for the help.” He couldn’t exactly say that this was her home and she didn’t want to leave. 

“Well if she’s looking to get back in the game, assuming we can get her a working identity, we’ll find a place for her here,” Simon offered. “Don’t suppose you’d actually accept her for a partner?” He never liked Duke not working with a partner. There was a reason all cops had one, but Duke was more than a little picky about who he trusted and refused to have a partner he didn’t trust. 

Duke knew that accepting too easily would raise suspicions so he just shrugged. “I’d give her a shot, but no promises. If she’s up for it, of course.”

“Of course. And if she accepts we’ll call the petty cash an advance on her first check. You want me to see about finding her a place to stay in the meantime or can you handle that?” 

“Well until we know what’s happening she might as well stay on my couch. If she comes to work here, we can always see if one of the officers has a spare room temporarily or even put her up at the inn, but if she’s just going to be passing through there’s no point going to the trouble,” Duke suggested. 

“Long as you don’t mind,” Simon agreed. “I’ll get on the ID and should have an answer by the end of the day, though it might take a few more for it to come through.”

“Okay. I need to get going anyway. I’ve got some people to interview for that vandalism case.” 

“If you manage to get that case closed, why don’t you take off for the day. Help the girl…what’s her name?” 

“Audrey Parker is the one she wants to go by now,” Duke told him. 

“What’s her real name?” Simon asked curiously. 

“Lucy, but she didn’t tell me her last name and once I confirmed her story, I figured it was safer not to know,” Duke pulled the first lie that came to mind. 

“Good enough,” Simon said writing the name Audrey Parker down. “Rough age?” he asked realizing that he would need that info for an ID. 

“Thirty,” Duke told him, having no idea how to tell him that she was at least a few hundred years old and she looked thirty enough. “I’ll send you a picture for the ID if they can come through on it.” 

“Okay. So yeah, take off early if you finish up and help…Audrey get what she needs. You look exhausted and it looks to be a slow day.”

“Thanks chief,” Duke said relieved. “I was up late trying to get the story out of her,” he explained as he headed out.


	3. Chapter 3

He stopped by to pick her up for the open house and found her ready to go, wearing her clothes from yesterday, but clearly fresh out of the shower smelling like his shampoo and soap. While they were driving, he told her, “So the chief is working on getting you some ID and offered you a job if it goes through. You interested?” 

“What kind of job?” she asked curiously. 

“Detective. My partner actually. It drives him nuts that I hate working with partners, but I’m willing to give it a shot if you are.” 

“Yeah. Actually, that sounds nice,” she smiled. “We’ve always worked well together. I’m sure I’ll be pretty bored with the whole ‘no crime’ thing, but I’ll adjust.”

“You sure you’ll be able to handle my dad as a boss?” he asked worriedly. “What with the whole history thing?”

“It might take a little getting used to, but since I never actually knew what he looked like before I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble. And if I do I’m sure we can explain it away by trauma or being intimidated by the new boss or something until I get over it.” 

“Good enough,” he agreed and then updated her on the revised story and how he filled in the holes so she wouldn’t end up getting tripped up and even gave her a copy of the case file of the crime that she supposedly witnessed. 

“Thorough,” she nodded respectfully. 

“Gotta be with the chief around,” he chuckled. “If he doesn’t think I checked it out then he would.” 

“Yeah, that would be bad,” she agreed as they pulled up to the open house. 

Duke asked a few routine questions about anyone who might have a grudge to explain the vandalism before Suzy was distracted and said, “Who /is/ that man? He keeps following us. Maybe you should talk to him.” 

Audrey turned around and sighed with relief. Cliff. She was right. She immediately started walking towards him, noticing Duke following her, but Cliff seemed like he was debating running. “Hey, Cliff…it’s okay. We just want to talk. You remember me right?” 

“Detective Parker? You know me?” he asked almost relieved. 

“Sure I do,” she said as she got to him. “I’m immune to the troubles and I think it’s your trouble that did this.” 

“I always thought this it was some dumb family joke but it’s real,” Cliff said with a shake of his head. “Crocker’s immune too?” he asked with a tilt of his head. 

“No, I just ran into him after this happened and told him about it,” Audrey explained. “So, what happened?” she asked gently. Duke stood back and let her handle this. This was a trouble thing. That was her bailiwick. That and he wanted to get a feel for how she worked. 

“Suzy got hurt back in old Haven. Because of the volcano troubles, remember?” Cliff asked. 

“Right,” she agreed, waiting for the rest. 

“Well she died later that night,” he said sadly. “So I wished for the troubles to go away. I mean, it’s just something you say right? I never thought it would happen, but then…poof. Trouble free Haven.”

“So, wait…you just /wished/ the troubles away?” she asked surprised that it would be that easy. 

“Yeah. My family always said there’s a dark side to every wish. They were right, because…she’s alive again, but she doesn’t even know that I exist and now she thinks that I’m some kind of creep,” he babbled heartbrokenly. “I just wanted to see her again.” 

“Why don’t you just try wishing for something different?” she asked curiously, mostly just to see if he had considered it and what he thought of the idea. She noticed Duke shift uncomfortably next to her and she shot him a look that clearly said ‘trust me’. 

“That could make things worse than they already are,” Cliff sighed. “It’s like playing Russian Roulette. The wishes come with a down side.” 

“Right,” she said relieved. 

“Well at least she’s alive again and…it looks like she’s happy, so…even if it’s without me,” Cliff said defeatedly. 

“That’s a very loving way to look at it,” she said sympathetically. “I’m sorry that it worked out this way for you.”

“Me too. But at least everything else is better and I’d rather have her living a happy life than go back to where she’s dead. You’re not going to try and make me change it back are you?” he asked worriedly. 

“No, definitely not,” Audrey assured him. “Like you said, everything is better now. So many people that were killed by the troubles are alive again and happy.”

“Yeah. I guess my trouble was good for something huh?” Cliff huffed. 

“At least you can take comfort in the fact that you saved her. And so many other people. You made everyone’s lives better,” she said sadly, reaching out to rub his arm soothingly. 

“Yeah. That helps,” Cliff gave a small smile. 

“But you know you can never use your trouble again right?” 

“No, I know,” Cliff said seriously. “It’ll never let me be happy. The downside will make sure of that. But here…everyone else is happy, so…”

“Will you be okay? Do you have…you know…an identity? Somewhere to go?” she asked worriedly. 

“Yeah, from what I could find in my wallet it looks like I moved out of Haven in this reality and I have an address in Kittery and a job and all. I guess, I should head home,” he sighed with one last wistful look over at Suzy. 

“Hang on. There is the whole vandalism issue to contend with,” Duke protested. 

“Yeah. Of course. I understand,” Cliff said holding out his hands for the cuffs. 

“Hang on just a second,” Audrey told Cliff before pulling Duke off to the side. “You’re just going to arrest him? You can’t understand what he’s going through?”

“Of course I understand it and I feel for the guy, but he did break the law,” Duke pointed out. “I have to close this case somehow,” he emphasized the last word, wondering if she would pick up on that. 

“And if I can find another way to close the case?” Audrey asked. 

“Then I’ll listen, but that’s all I’ll promise for now,” Duke agreed. 

“Okay, how much do you think it’ll cost to fix the signs?”

“The bill already came in. Five hundred and twelve dollars,” Duke told her. 

“I’ll pay for it,” Cliff offered, having been eavesdropping. “Here’s two hundred for now. That’s all I have on me, but I can get the rest from the ATM.”

Duke took it slowly as he considered his options. “You know, it’s too bad that bipolar teenager went off his meds, but at least his parents paid for the damage and promised to be more vigilant about making sure he takes them. I really don’t think there’s any reason to drag the poor kid through the courts for this.” 

Audrey’s lips twitched in a smile. “Think it’ll work?” 

“I’ll catch some flak from the old man for it, but nothing I can’t handle,” Duke shrugged. “Just know that this is a one-time thing and only because of the whole trouble complication,” he warned. 

“I understand,” Audrey nodded. If not for the trouble complication she wouldn’t have gone for it either. She would have just let the courts handle the fine. But since he couldn’t tell the real reason why, they wouldn’t have any compassion for him and would nail him to the wall for it. “And that’s the only reason I’m suggesting it too.” 

“So…we’re good then?” Cliff asked hopefully. 

“Long as you can get me the other three hundred,” Duke assured him. 

“Yeah. If you’ll drive me to an ATM I’ll get it now,” he promised. 

“Come on then,” Duke jerked his head towards the SUV. Cliff grabbed an extra two hundred from the ATM and tried to give it to Duke as a thank you, but Duke just narrowed his eyes at him. “I’m not a dirty cop. I don’t take bribes or gifts. I won’t accept a penny over five hundred and twelve dollars.” Cliff apologized and took back all but one extra twenty and Duke pulled out his wallet to give him the eight dollars change before Duke dropped him off at the bus station so he could find his way home.

“Why don’t you come into the station with me. Once I get this case closed, I have permission to take off for the day. We can grab some lunch and then get you some clothes and stuff,” Duke suggested. 

“Oh that would be great,” she sighed happily. “I promise I will pay you back as soon as I can.” 

“Not me. The chief. He pulled some petty cash for you to get set up,” Duke told her, wanting her to at least have a better opinion of his father if she was going to be working for him. “He did say he could consider it an advance on your pay if you take the job.” 

“Okay. Yeah. That’s perfect. And we can go to the thrift store on Peach St. rather than buying new clothes,” she decided. 

“As long as you’re good with that,” Duke agreed with a shrug. 

“I mean, depending on what they have we might need to buy some work clothes, new, but we’ll get what we can there first.” She could always upgrade her wardrobe once she was on her feet. Just because she had to accept charity for the time being didn’t mean that she was going to take advantage of it.

Once they got to the station, Audrey waited in the visitor area while Duke disappeared into the chief’s office. She heard a bit of muffled yelling early on, but it didn’t last long and it was about ten minutes after that when Duke came out and caught Audrey’s eye. He jerked his head towards the office. “He wants to see you.” 

Audrey got up and went over a little nervously, trying to read in Duke’s eyes what to expect, but got nothing but an encouraging smile before he headed into his own office. Audrey took a deep steadying breath before stepping inside with a knock to the doorframe since she was expected. “Come on in, Ms…Parker.” 

“Thank you, Chief Crocker,” she said with a shaky smile. 

“Detective Crocker informed me that you’re interested in working for me, so you can consider this your job interview,” he told her with a smirk. 

“Well I’m not really dressed for…” 

“I know. And I know why. But we don’t always have advanced warning for what happens in the field either do we? We should be ready for anything at all times,” he said as his smirk widened. 

“You’re absolutely right,” Audrey said, taking a deep breath and sitting stiffly in the chair, trying not to notice how very much like his son that smirk was. 

“Excellent. First things first, I understand that you were with Detective Crocker this morning. I want a verbal report.” 

“Yes, sir,” she nodded, glad that Duke had drilled her on details so they would have their stories straight. “We found the perpetrator lurking outside the open house that Peter and Suzy were hosting. When we realized that he was only fourteen, we took him to meet his parents where it was learned that he was bipolar and had forgotten to take his medication. Upon learning of his crime, the parents offered to pay for the damage and promised to pay more attention to his medication,” she explained formally as she would for a verbal report. 

“I see. And Detective Crocker felt that should be the end of it without legal action. Do you agree?” 

“Yes, I do,” she told him. “The law is all well and good, but compassion is just as important. Traumatizing a mentally ill child through the courts over something easily fixed wouldn’t help anyone and I’m sure just being questioned by the police was enough of a lesson for both him and his parents in the importance of taking his medication to prevent the situation from ever happening again.” The scrutinizing look from the chief of police was unsettling, but other than a heavy swallow, she showed no sign of being unnerved. 

Once he was sure that she wasn’t going to fold, Simon nodded curtly and moved on. He spent a little time quizzing her, both on the police manual and things that you could only pick up on the job. He wanted to be sure that she was telling the truth about being a cop since he had the opportunity. When she answered everything correctly, he brought out one last test. He pulled a gun from his drawer, noticing her slight flinch, but not commenting on it. It corroborated the story of her trauma at least and clearly she could work past it since she’d had no other reaction. He pulled the gun apart and placed the pieces on the desk before pulling out a stopwatch. 

Audrey knew what was expected of her and couldn’t help but smirk. She had always been good at this game. She waited for his nod to move and had the gun put together and sitting back on the desk in no time, getting a raised eyebrow from him as he looked at the stopwatch. “Not the fastest I’ve seen, but close. Consider yourself hired once your new identity comes through,” he decided. 

“Thank you, chief,” she grinned. 

“Just make sure you’re dressed properly for work, detective,” he ordered amusedly. 

“Of course, sir,” she couldn’t help but chuckle. Despite the brief moment of nerves from Simon Crocker pulling a gun on her, she found him much more likable than she’d expected. Not as gruff as Garland Wuornos had been, not that Garland hadn’t grown on her, of course. 

“Do you mind if we talk on a more personal note, now that that’s out of the way?” 

“Not at all,” she easily agreed. 

“I want to warn you of a few things about my son if you’re going to be his partner.”

“What kind of things?” Audrey asked worriedly. 

“He’s a damn good detective, but he doesn’t usually play well with others. He’s always been a bit of a ‘lone wolf’ so they say. Try to keep that mind and don’t take his attitude personally,” Simon told her. 

“He sounds like my last partner,” she said with a wistful smile. She wasn’t even sure if she was talking about Nathan or the old Duke since they ended up working together more often than not then too. “I’m sure I can handle it but thank you for the heads up.” 

“Good. It’ll make me feel much better knowing that he has someone watching his back out there,” Simon said relieved. “He doesn’t trust easily, but he trusts you for some reason. That go both ways?” 

“Absolutely,” she nodded before deciding that some explanation might be necessary since they’d supposedly only known each other for less than a day and a half. “I’d been hitchhiking my way across the country for weeks, sleeping in abandoned buildings along the way so I didn’t end up leaving a trail. When Duke found me, I was a mess and I wouldn’t have blamed him at all if he’d just sent me on my way, but he didn’t. That was the first kindness anyone had shown me since I left home. Not only that, but he went out of his own pocket to buy me a new shirt and some shoes before taking me to the hospital to make sure I was okay and he’s been going out of his way to help me ever since. How could I not trust him?” The real first time they’d met, he’d literally saved her life, made her breakfast and coffee, cleaned her clothes, and bought her a new phone to replace her ruined one, so her story may have been factually incorrect, but the gist was the same. 

“That does sound like Duke,” Simon chuckled. “Just remember, if you ever break his trust, you’ll probably never get it back, so tread carefully.” He really wanted this to work. 

“I will,” she vowed seriously. 

“Okay then all I need from you now is a picture to send in for your IDs if you want to just stand in front of that wall over there,” he pointed. Once the picture was taken, he told her. “It’ll take about three days for it to come in and for the systems to be updated then we can get you officially hired and get you your badge and gun. Until then, I’d prefer if you didn’t ride along on any more cases. Liability and all.”

“I understand. I’ll stay out of it until then,” she nodded and turned to leave recognizing the dismissal. She stopped at the door and turned back though. “Oh and Duke told me that you gave him some money from the petty cash to help me get some things replaced. Thank you for that and I’m good with it being taken out of my first paycheck.” 

“You’re welcome. We take care of our own,” he told her with a smile which she returned before she walked out. 

“You ready?” Duke asked her as she came out. 

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

Once they were in the car, Duke asked her, “You were in there a long time…Did he grill you that much on the case?” 

“No, that part only took a few minutes, but he said he was giving me a surprise job interview so that part took a while and then a little bit of ‘getting to know you’ time,” she explained, leaving out what was said about Duke. 

Duke snorted amusedly. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me at all. You’re good though? You know…with your issues and all?” 

“Yeah. I’m good. He was a lot nicer than I expected,” she admitted. 

Duke laughed at that. “Just wait until you screw something up and then try to tell me how nice he is.” 

“I heard him yelling at you,” she admitted. “I couldn’t hear what he was saying though.” 

“Just not happy about me letting the kid go. Nothing to worry about.”

“I’m sorry. I feel like it’s my fault,” she said sadly. 

“It’s not. I make my own decisions,” he said firmly. Audrey couldn’t help but wince at that causing him to look at her funny. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just brought back a not so happy memory is all,” she shook her head. 

“Of me?” When he got a nod, he asked, “Tell me?” 

She hesitated for a moment before deciding that she’d been open with him so far and it had worked well so she might as well continue. “We had a fight once. A big one. Once it was over…”

“What was it about?” he asked, not willing to let her just skip over the whole thing like that. 

She sighed. “I screwed up,” she freely admitted. “Not entirely on purpose, but you didn’t know that. See, it was right after you learned about your curse and you told Nathan and me about it. We had a troubled guy whose trouble was causing his organs to shut down and he was sucking out his children’s organs through their throats to replace them.”

“That sounds…awful,” Duke shuddered. 

“It was. But it was even worse because he’d worked at a fertility clinic and prepared for the time when his trouble would kick in and replaced his sperm with the samples so he had hundreds of kids out there that he could harvest from. And then to top that off, every time he was interrupted in the process and we managed to save the kid, it would activate their own trouble so they’d be in the same position,” she told him. 

“So you wanted me to kill him and save all those kids,” Duke realized, not really sure how he would have felt about that. 

“Yeah. It was the only way and he was dying from the organ failure anyway unless we were actually going to keep feeding him kids, so…”

“No, I get it. It sucks but I get it,” Duke assured her. “I take it the other me didn’t like that idea?”

“It wasn’t that so much as the fact that I didn’t tell you why I brought you along until the last minute. You accused me of manipulating you and told me that it wasn’t my decision to make. I really had intended to talk to you a dozen times over the course of the day we spent tracking him down though. It was just…every time I started to open my mouth…how do you tell someone, by the way I’m gonna need you to murder this dying defenseless man even though I know how much you’ve been torturing yourself over finding out your horrible family legacy and you vowed to never do it.” 

“Yeah, that’s a hard thing to tell someone. But you still should have,” Duke told her. 

“I know I should have. And I know I deserved everything you said and did after that,” she sighed. 

“What did I do?” Duke asked worriedly. 

“Nothing too bad,” she assured him, seeing his concern. “You yelled at me a little bit and told me to clean up my own mess and stormed off, but when you saw the kid we’d just saved start to turn you came back and did it. Later that night I found you sitting in your empty bar in the dark completely smashed. I tried to apologize and point out how many people you saved but you just glared at me and walked out. Then you showed up and helped out on the next case, putting yourself at risk to save the troubled person after she’d accidentally killed three people, and almost four including you. You told me afterwards that you wanted to prove to me that your family legacy didn’t control you and neither did I.” 

“But we got over it?” Duke asked curiously as they pulled into the café for lunch. 

“Yeah,” she huffed a laugh as they went in and sat down. “The next morning you were knocking on my door with coffee at the crack of dawn and everything was back to normal. You and I always seemed to give each other second chances too.” 

“We fought a lot then?”

“I wouldn’t say that,” she shook her head. “Little tiffs, yeah maybe. We both tended to get a little snippy from time to time, but I don’t really count anything that’s forgotten about it minutes as a fight. We really only had two big fights once we became friends. That one and then the time you kinda betrayed me.”

There was a pause for them to order their food before he asked, “What did I do?” trying to get a feel for how far this forgiveness between them had gone. 

“There was practically a war brewing in town between the troubled people and the church militia led by the fanatical reverend Driscoll. You joined up with the reverend to help him hunt three little troubled kids who were turned into cannibals but managing to survive on animal flesh.” 

“No,” Duke shook his head in denial. “I would never advocate for killing people over something they couldn’t control. Especially not kids. Even if it did end their trouble. No way.”

“This was before you found out about your family curse. You knew that there was a big secret that he was keeping from you and that he wanted to use you for something, and you were playing along to find out what. I don’t think you really would have killed any of those kids…or let anyone else if you had been there when they got caught.”

“Did they kill the kids?” Duke asked worriedly. 

“No. I saved them. But I had to shoot the reverend to do it. He had a knife headed for the kid’s heart. You yelled at me for not shooting him in the shoulder or the leg instead of killing him since he had been about to tell you all your family secrets.” 

“Yeah, that was a dick move on my part,” Duke admitted. While he’d never had to kill anyone in the line of duty, he knew that in that situation he wouldn’t have hesitated to do so. He was glad that she seemed to know that he wouldn’t have hurt anyone and he couldn’t imagine how desperate he must have been to have gone as far as he did. “How’d I get you to forgive me? Just in case I need to use the method later at some point,” he partially joked. 

She laughed and shrugged. “I’m…not really sure now that you mention it.” 

“You’re not?” he couldn’t help but laugh with her. 

“No. I mean, every time we argued about something, whether it turned into a fight or not, you always showed up on porch the next morning with a peace offering of coffee and then everything was okay again.” 

“I’ll have to make sure I never run out of coffee then,” he said amusedly. 

“It wasn’t the coffee,” she rolled her eyes with a chuckle. “Though that didn’t hurt.”

“What was it then?” he asked curiously. 

“It was…the fact that you cared, I guess,” she actually tried to analyze it for the first time. “The fact that you were there meant that you /wanted/ everything to be okay between us and that was just…enough.” 

“I guess that makes you a second chancer too,” he decided, starting to understand just how much they had meant to each other in her world. 

“I guess so,” she grinned.


	4. Chapter 4

“Shopping now?” he suggested as he paid the bill. 

“Only if you promise that you’re not as bad as Vince and Dave. Otherwise I’m going myself,” she joked. 

Duke barked a laugh. “If you’ve been shopping with Vince and Dave I’m surprised you’re not traumatized at the very thought of a clothing store.” 

“I got over it after a while,” she laughed. 

“Don’t worry. You won’t hear a peep out of me. In fact, I prefer that you not ask my opinion at all if you don’t mind.” 

“I don’t know if I can promise /that/ but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum,” she promised as they walked across the street to the store only to find out that they were having a bag sale. As much as she could fit into a brown paper bag for five dollars. She had been in here often enough in the past that she wasn’t surprised at the selection, and even managed to find a decent amount of work clothes in her size. She ended up with four bags worth of clothes which should be enough to last her for a good while. The only thing that she didn’t get was underwear. That she was absolutely going to buy new. When she mentioned that, Duke just dropped her off at the department store and gave her the rest of the money while he headed to the record store next door to browse while he waited for her to finish. 

When Audrey came out she was only carrying three bags. She had bought two packs of basic underwear, toiletries, a cheap purse, wallet, and make-up which was all she really needed and handed him the hundred dollars that was left. “You can give that back to your dad.”

“You sure you’re all set?” he asked skeptically. He’d been worried that two hundred dollars wasn’t enough, and she’d only spent half of it.

“Well, not for rent or food or anything, but I’ve got what I need otherwise,” she told him. “I hope you don’t mind helping me out with that part for now?” she asked hopefully. “I’ll make sure to pay you back when I can.”

“I don’t mind, and you don’t have to pay me back for that. I can handle a little extra food and you can keep sleeping on my couch or the PD can comp a room at the inn for a while. But why don’t you hang onto the rest of the money, just in case you forgot something. It would just be gathering dust in a drawer anyway and if you still have it left when you start getting paid it’ll be coming out of your check anyway so it doesn’t matter. It’s not like you’ll be charged interest on it,” he pointed out amusedly. 

“Yeah, okay. Thank you, Duke. Really,” she said relieved. 

“Us second chancers have to look out for each other,” he chuckled. “I’m sure you’d do the same for me if our positions were reversed.”

It dawned on her what else he’d said about her living arrangements and she considered the matter for a minute. On one hand, she didn’t want to put him out by sleeping on his couch for a month or more, but asking the department to comp a room for a new employee for the same amount of time might be asking too much. Since that part was a toss-up she considered what she wanted personally. Having Duke nearby was comforting as she tried to find a place in this new world, but sleeping on a bed versus sleeping on a couch was a no-brainer. “Are you sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble to comp me a room?” 

“Nah. Now if it was tourist season, yeah, I might not be able to swing it, but this time of year it’s no problem at all,” Duke assured her. “Won’t be able to put the request through until tomorrow though, if you can handle roughing it for one more night.”

“Yeah, I’m good with that,” she grinned. “In that case, I will keep the money and I’ll only bug you for food if I run out.”

“Just don’t try starving yourself to save or anything,” Duke told her. 

“I won’t,” she promised. She wasn’t going to be eating out or buying expensive foods of course. She could make do with sandwiches and hot dogs and cheap frozen dinners for a while. It wouldn’t be the first time. 

Once they got back to Duke’s apartment, he helped her bring her stuff in before heading into his room and coming back and tossing her a large duffel bag. “Here. You can borrow that for a while.” 

“Perfect. Thanks,” she said gratefully. “But first I’m gonna go change. I feel gross wearing the same clothes for so long.” She grabbed some of her new clothes and headed to the bathroom to change before coming back and putting everything else away, stuffing her dirty clothes into one of the now empty bags before he grabbed them. 

“Just put them in with mine for now. I’ll get them back to you once they’re clean,” he rolled his eyes. 

Audrey snickered at that and decided to share another memory since he seemed to enjoy them so much. “Reminds me of the day we met.”

“What I did your laundry then too?” he asked amusedly. 

“Yeah, actually,” she told him with a grin. “See, I had just gotten to Haven and I was waiting for you at your boat to talk to you when some evidence pointed your way…”

“What kind of evidence?” his cop side had to ask. 

“The gun found at the scene of the crime was registered to you.”

“Ah. That would do it,” Duke nodded. She’d said more than once that he wasn’t a killer, so he was assuming that he ended up being cleared. 

“Yeah. The detective who sent me your way kinda had a grudge against you though and didn’t mention that you had reported that gun stolen a week before. But given that the murdered guy wasn’t shot, you weren’t an actual suspect either way. Just a person of interest.” 

“Understandable. But we’re getting off track. You were waiting at my boat for me…”

“When a freak storm came up. Hail, lightning, the works. I was headed to take shelter on your boat since it was the closest thing to me when a bolt of lightning hit the power pole beside me and I was knocked unconscious and into the water. The next thing I knew I was waking up naked in a strange bed on a boat.”

“Oh?” Duke asked raising an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, I found out later that I’d been on the verge of hypothermia so you had to strip me out of my wet clothes.”

“Still, it had to have been terrifying.”

“I’ll admit, I did freak out internally for a minute. And then I noticed that you had left me a long shirt, my badge, and my gun on the side table and that helped.”

“The gun probably most of all,” he chuckled. 

“Definitely,” she agreed. “Obviously I still wasn’t letting my guard down and kept my gun drawn as I crept out to see what was going on only to find you sitting casually on the deck of the boat reading the paper. You gave me a chipper, ‘good morning’, and pointed out my now clean clothes hanging on the clothesline, and I quickly got dressed as I started asking you about your gun which was when I learned that you’d reported it stolen. I didn’t put my gun away until I was dressed though.”

“I don’t blame you for that.”

“Yeah, you didn’t seem to then either,” she told him. “You were completely casual and calm about the whole thing and then broke the ice by offering me coffee after making a guess about how I took it which was completely wrong and then you made a joke out of it. You had also made me breakfast and gotten me a new phone since mine was ruined in my unintended swim. Granted, it was a horrible pink sparkly monstrosity, but given that you had to have gone out either in the middle of the night or before sunup to get it, I’m not surprised. I was still a little too on edge and off-kilter to be properly appreciative at the time though.”

“That makes sense. As long as you didn’t arrest me,” he laughed. 

“No. I didn’t arrest you,” she laughed with him. “Though the detective did later that day, but that had nothing to do with me and I helped to clear you. That was also when I became pretty sure that you had been misjudged.”

“How so?” 

“Well I had been told that you were an unrepentant criminal who would do anything for a buck and that you didn’t care about anyone but yourself, but when I learned that you had outright refused to ferry a wanted felon out of the country and kicked him off your boat because that was a line you wouldn’t cross…”

“So you gave me the benefit of the doubt,” Duke realized. 

“Basically, yeah. I tried to ignore what other people said and judge you based on what I could see. It wasn’t always easy and there were a few backslides along the way, especially since you were acting like a yo-yo with me.”

“What do you mean?” he asked amusedly. 

“Well half the time you kept me at arm’s length, telling me you didn’t socialize with cops, but then you’d do it anyway. Once, when I came to ask you about something not work related and you refused to talk to me, I got annoyed and told you I could always /make/ you talk and you actually said ‘or you could just make things easier on yourself and come back when I’m in a more cooperative mood’.” 

“Which option did you take?” 

“I came back later,” she shrugged. “I had pretty much decided by that point to try and play nice with you anyway. But yeah, it only took a few months after we met before we had both given up on trying to needle each other and became friends. I do wonder though…” She trailed off, as her mind went on the tangent. 

“Wonder what?” 

“Do you speak any languages?” she realized that she hadn’t finished the question. 

“A little Spanish and a smattering of French. Why?” 

“In the other world you spoke quite a few languages. I guess because you were always traveling the world on your boat,” she shrugged. 

“What languages did I speak?” Duke asked. 

“The only ones I know for sure were Spanish, Japanese, and Russian since those were the only ones I ever heard you speak. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more though.” 

“At least I was still smart,” he joked. 

“You were basically a genius,” she laughed. “Just not in the more traditional ways.”

“In what ways?” 

“You had this way of looking at a problem and seeing a dozen different outside the box solutions that no one else would have even considered. Not to mention that you knew enough to get by about pretty much any subject you would need out on the water all by yourself. Like how you knew I was hypothermic and what to do for it, and I doubt there was anything you couldn’t fix or at least rig up to work well enough.”

“I don’t know if I could fix /anything/. This version of me, I mean, but I am pretty good at figuring things out when I need to.” 

“I know. I can tell,” she smirked. 

“Oh? How?” he asked curiously. 

“Well you’ve done pretty much nothing but think outside the box since this whole mess started and every time I’m at a loss for something you pull a solution out of your hat. The rest is in your hands.”

“My hands?” he asked confused. 

“Yeah. Your hands are the same as they were, meaning that you do the same kind of physical work, even if not as much of it.” 

“I can see why you were a good detective,” he chuckled refusing to consider how it made him feel that she had noticed which was what prompted his change of subject. “Was that how you could tell that your boyfriend was so different too?” 

“One of the many ways, yeah. His hands were so soft which just felt weird,” she shook her head. “But he’s not my boyfriend anymore. Even if he didn’t have a family here, he’s just too different.”

“How else is he different?” Duke wondered. 

“Well, the Nathan I knew was reserved, humorless, focused. The Nathan I met here was the exact opposite. He joked around…horrible jokes, but he still tried. He was open and happy. My Nathan almost never smiled.”

“So that’s your type then? No wonder it didn’t work with us,” he joked. 

“I don’t think I have a type really,” she told him as she started to lean against him, but caught herself in time. Unfortunately, he noticed and raised a questioning eyebrow at her. “Sorry. I always had a habit of leaning on you whenever we got to talking like this and forgot for a minute.” 

Duke hesitated for a moment before he told her, “Feel free to treat me like…well…me. Whatever you’re comfortable with. There’s no need to hold back. I’m still the same guy apparently.”

“Yeah but you don’t know me the way I know you. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” she pointed out. 

“It’s more uncomfortable when you don’t act naturally,” he told her. The more she held back, the harder it was for him to relax. 

“Yeah, okay,” she could get that. If he really could tell, then it made sense. She let herself lean back against his side and his arm hung on the back of the couch giving her space. 

They could both feel the tension almost seeping from her body at the contact, and Duke was more than a little surprised that such a little thing could make so much difference. “Tell me more about this other me.”

“Why is it so fascinating to you?” she asked with a laugh. 

“Come on…the idea of knowing what your life would have been like in a different world? How is that /not/ fascinating?” 

“I guess that makes sense. But I’ve told you a lot already and you’ve hardly told me anything about /this/ you. I demand a quid pro quo or I’m cutting you off,” she teased. 

Duke laughed heartily and shook his head. “That’s fair,” he agreed. “Well I already told you that I always wanted a boat. I rent them often to go out and do some fishing or diving. I’m a certified scuba diver, but I also free dive quite a bit too. I enjoy being out on the water. It’s just so…freeing, you know?” 

“I can imagine. I haven’t spent a lot of time on the water myself. Usually just going from point A to point B in the middle of a crisis, but I’ve never really been able to let myself enjoy it.”

“Maybe one of these days we can fix that,” Duke offered, unconsciously letting his hand fall off the back of the couch and his fingers trail over her bicep. 

“That could be fun. Getting a chance to relax at all will be new for me,” she admitted, not even noticing his motions since it was so familiar. 

“Yet another thing that this world has better,” he chuckled. “Do you really think we can keep it?” he asked the question that he’d been dreading asking since this whole mess started. 

“I don’t know,” she said with a sigh as she let her head fall back on his shoulder. “I hope so. There aren’t really any rules with this though. One guy’s trouble erased a bunch of people from existence and they never came back even after he died. Another guy spawned a copy of himself that disappeared after he died. Then there was a woman who stuffed things that came back to life, but her creations stayed after she died. Another guy’s imagination spawned aliens, but once he was abducted, they disappeared. Another girl had the ability to raise the dead and when she died, all the people she brought back stayed alive.”

“Hmm. It seems to me we’ve got a pretty good chance then. I mean…it seems to me like the guy with the aliens was keeping them going with his mind. And it makes sense that the copy couldn’t exist without the original. Sort of like if you go back in time and kill your past self then you can’t exist. The guy that made this world isn’t controlling it like the aliens. It’s more self-sustaining, like bringing a person back to life or erasing them from existence,” Duke reasoned. 

“I hadn’t thought of it like that,” Audrey grinned. “I mean…nothing is ever definite with these things, but…yeah. I guess we do have a pretty good chance.” 

“Then I guess we can stop worrying about it and just enjoy it,” Duke decided. “If it ends, then it ends and there’s nothing we can do about it anyway.” Now that he knew that at least there was a chance he could put it out of his mind. 

“Yeah. You’re right,” Audrey nodded before getting back on topic. “Why did you become a cop?” 

“You mean aside from it being the family business?” 

“Yeah. Aside from that. There has to be something deeper or you would have given it up a long time ago.” She knew a lot of people who had gotten into it because of expectations and they never lasted long. 

“You can’t guess?” he teased. 

“I can guess the emotions behind it, but not the event that precipitated it,” she elbowed him in the stomach playfully. 

“There wasn’t really any one big event,” he shrugged. “Just, I saw how my dad and my grandpa helped people and I wanted to do that too. I’ve never been able to stand by and watch people be hurt or bullied. It’s just not in my nature.” 

“Yeah, I can see that,” she smiled, thinking of all the examples of that she’d seen in the old Haven.

“So what’s your story?” he asked curiously. If she had expected him to have one, then she must have one herself. 

Audrey sighed. “My story isn’t very pleasant. Of course, it isn’t technically /my/ story so much as the original Audrey Parker’s…”

“Just because the memories weren’t originally yours doesn’t mean they’re any less real to you. They’re still a part of who you are and shape your personality,” Duke told her. 

Audrey huffed a laugh, turning her head against his shoulder in what could pass for a hug. At least the emotion behind it. “The other you said the same thing once.” She took a deep breath before deciding to tell the story. “I was ten and in a new foster home. One of the other girls was twelve and she told me how the foster dad used to come into her room at night, drunk, and…well I’m sure you get the picture.” She knew he did when his arm came completely off the back of the couch to wrap around her while his other hand came up to rub her arm soothingly. “The next time he came home drunk, I snuck into her room and waited. When he came in, I stabbed him in the neck with a pair of scissors. He survived, but he never touched a little girl again. That was when I knew that I was going to dedicate my life to helping people. Protecting them. Especially kids. I didn’t want any other kid to be put in that position.”

“Your position or the other girl’s?” Duke asked knowingly.   
“Either,” she admitted for the first time. Even to herself. “I’ve…never told anyone that story before.” She didn’t count talking about it with the original Audrey of course since she’d already known. 

“Not even the old me?” Duke asked surprised. 

“No. I might have if you’d ever asked. Or maybe not. I don’t know,” she shrugged. 

There was a heavy silence for a few minutes before Duke thought of a funny story he could tell her. “Did you happen to know Mrs. Nelson in your Haven?” he asked curiously. 

“Yeah, I’m terrible with names,” she said sheepishly. 

“Well, she has about twenty cats and a drinking problem…”

“Oh yeah. I know her,” Audrey laughed greatly anticipating whatever story he was about to tell that involved her. 

“Well one of my first calls when I started as a beat cop was her claim that someone had catnapped one of her cats…”

“Yeah, I’ve gotten that one,” she grinned. 

“So I go out there and she’s drunk as a skunk, rambling on and on about the supposedly missing cat, but every time she goes through it, the cat changes. Different colors. Different sizes. Even different names. I ended up spending over an hour there, trying to corral all these insane cats…some of whom did not like me at all, just so we can get an accurate count.” 

Audrey was laughing hilariously by this point and told him, “I made the mistake of putting them all in the same box my first time.” 

“I bet that went over well,” Duke laughed with her. 

“Yeah, not so much…So I’m guessing they were all there?” 

“Yeah. They were. And then I spent the next hour at the hospital getting all the scratches cleaned and bandaged,” he finished. 

“Aww. Poor baby,” she teased. “Not a cat person?” 

“I like cats just fine. The ones that aren’t vicious menaces to society anyway,” he mock-grumbled and they laughed for a few more minutes before Duke gave her a squeeze and went to get up. “I should get dinner started.”

“Ooh, I hope you cook as well as the other you,” Audrey grinned. 

“Probably,” Duke said amusedly. “My dad was never much of a cook. If I wanted good food, I had to learn how to make it myself.” 

“Well I can’t really cook, but if you have something to stir or chop or something like that, I could help,” she offered. 

“I was just going to make up some spaghetti and garlic bread. I don’t usually make big meals during the week with work and all,” Duke told her. “I’ll let you stir the sauce though if you want.” 

“Okay, I can do that,” she agreed. 

“So the other me cooked too?” Duke asked. “You said I owned a restaurant…”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure if you ever cooked there or not. You might have. I don’t know. But usually whenever I went by your boat around dinnertime, you were happy to feed me. Sometimes I even did it on purpose just to get a good meal. And whenever one of us would end up crashing on each other’s couch, you always cooked breakfast.” 

“Did that happen often?” 

“Not really. A couple times when someone was after you, you slept on my couch and then after I was kidnapped and tortured by a serial killer at one point and didn’t want to be alone, I went down to your boat and you let me stay there, but I think that’s it.” 

“What else can you tell me about me?” he asked curiously. 

“Well you were into Buddhism and meditation, yoga, tai chi, all that kind of stuff. Are you?” 

“I do meditate and I’ve read a lot on different religions and philosophies, including Buddhism. Yoga and tai chi aren’t really big things around here though and since I haven’t spent a lot of time outside of town I haven’t had occasion to learn. I did always copy what I saw in Karate Kid when I was younger if that counts?” he chuckled. 

“Not really, no. I think we all did that,” she laughed. “I always meant to ask you to teach me how to meditate, but we never really got enough down time to bother.”

“I’d be glad to teach you if that’s something you still want,” he offered. 

“Yeah. That’d be great. If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” he assured her. “We can start this weekend if you want?” 

“Perfect,” she grinned. “Tomorrow’s Friday right?” she suddenly thought to ask. “I assume I arrived here on the same day it was there.”

“Yeah. Tomorrow’s Friday. Since we won’t be getting you your room until the afternoon at the earliest, I’ll let you have Saturday to settle in and then come by Sunday after lunch?” She easily agreed and it was only a moment later when he motioned her up to start stirring the sauce and they continued exchanging anecdotes and stories. It wasn’t long after dinner though before Duke decided to go to bed early. His three hours of sleep last night were really starting to catch up to him. 

Audrey hadn’t slept much more the night before so she was out not long after him and woke the next morning to the smell off coffee and sat up groggily. “I didn’t think to ask, how /do/ you take your coffee?” 

“Black, no sugar,” she slurred sleepily as she got up and staggered to the table, surprised to find a plate of food set in front of her. 

“It’s just scrambled eggs and sausage. Takes ten minutes,” he shrugged at her surprise. He usually made that for breakfast a few times a week anyway. He just made a little more than usual this time. 

“Thank you,” she said sincerely. 

“No problem. But you’re cleaning up,” he chuckled. He didn’t want to end up in the habit of waiting on her. Not that she seemed like the type to take advantage of that, but he knew he had a habit of falling into that hole if he wasn’t careful. 

“Works for me,” she agreed amusedly. 

He ate quickly before heading out for work. “Hold onto my burner phone for now until you get your department phone. I’ll call you once your room is ready at the inn if you have change for the bus to get there?” 

“Yeah, I got it covered,” she nodded. She wasn’t going to ask him to be her chauffer all the time and she was familiar enough with the bus routes, not that she’d used them often. Living outside of town meant that she didn’t usually have access to them, but until she got a car of her own, she would have to get used to it. Once he was gone she got to cleaning up. Both from breakfast as last night’s dinner that they’d been too tired to deal with last night. Once that was done, she took a shower and then got all her new stuff packed up and then sat down with one of Duke’s books for the rest of the morning. She finished off the leftover Chinese food from two nights ago for lunch and it wasn’t long after that when she got the call from Duke. 

Once she got to the inn and dropped her stuff off, she walked down to the grocery store two blocks away. She bought two loaves of bread, two packs of hot dog buns, plenty of lunch meat, cheese, peanut butter, jelly, hot dogs, and realized that the fridge in the inn was too small for frozen dinners so just got some cans of soup and chef Boyardee type meals. The generic brand, of course. She also got some paper bowls and plastic cups, and that was it so she still had more than half the money left. Carrying everything back to the motel wasn’t exactly easy, but there wasn’t so much that she couldn’t manage. She spent the rest of the afternoon getting everything put away and was just sitting down to watch tv when the phone Duke gave her rang. It was a very quick conversation. He just wanted to make sure she was settled in okay and had everything she needed. Once she assured him that she did and thanked him, that was that and she spent the rest of the evening watching television before she fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Saturday morning, Audrey quickly found herself bored and decided to go for a walk around town and just take in the peace that she had been missing for so long. She walked through the park and soon found herself browsing through the farmer’s market. Once she noticed how low the prices were, she decided to buy a few fruits to snack on in her room. At one point she was inspecting some sort of food on a stick that looked and smelled appetizing, and the booth owner asked her, “Would you like one? Two dollars.”

“No, I’m okay…”

“Yes, she would,” a voice came from behind her as a hand reached to hand over a five dollar bill. “Two please.” 

“Chief Crocker,” Audrey said surprised, only hesitating for a moment before taking the offered food with a quiet, “thank you.”

“Half the fun of the farmer’s market is trying the different foods,” he chuckled, walking as he was talking in a clear invitation for her to join him or miss what he was saying. “Are you settling in okay? Were you able to get everything you needed?” 

“Yeah, I was, thanks. The inn is great,” she told him. 

“Much better than Duke’s old couch I’m sure,” he joked.

“In some ways, yeah,” she chuckled. 

“How are you liking Haven so far?” 

“It’s beautiful. I love it here. So peaceful.”

“Is it a big change from where you come from?” he asked conversationally. 

“In some ways, yes, in others not so much. On the surface, this is a lot like where I come from, but it doesn’t have the…dangerous element lurking in the shadows, if you know what I mean,” she said honestly. 

“I do. We pride ourselves on keeping this a safe place. Not that there isn’t some level of crime, of course. I don’t think it’s possible to eliminate it completely, but it’s mostly just small stuff. I hope you won’t get too bored,” he said amusedly. 

“I’m sure I won’t,” she assured him. “Some nice simple work will be a nice change. I might even manage to get days off every once in a while here,” she laughed. 

“You didn’t get those back in Nebraska?” he asked, trying to get to know her a little better. 

“Not usually, no. Every time I tried there was some disaster or another that I was needed for.” When she realized how that sounded, she quickly added, “We were always pretty shorthanded and there was way too much going on. The beat cops usually got relatively normal schedules, but there were only two of us detectives so we were on call pretty much all the time.” 

“It’s the same here for the most part, but there isn’t usually anything important enough to call you in outside of normal hours. It does come up occasionally though,” he explained as they detoured by a trash can to drop their now clean sticks and napkins. “So tell me a little about yourself? You have any family you left behind?”

“No,” she shook her head. “I’m an orphan. Never knew my parents. Grew up in foster homes and gladly put them behind me as soon as I could.” 

“You ever been married? Had kids?” he asked curiously. 

“Never been married,” she shook her head and hesitated a moment before saying, “But I did have a son once. James. There was an accident…he didn’t make it. I don’t like to talk about it much.” She took a steadying breath at that. She hated the idea of pretending he never existed, but there was no way she could claim that he was grown. Not with her current age, and any other reason he wouldn’t be with her would be bad, so she went with the truth. He had almost certainly died when the barn imploded. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Simon said sympathetically. “Losing a child is the worst thing any person can go through.” He wondered if that was why she had thrown herself into her work so much and maybe it even had something to do with how easily she just picked up and ran clear across the country. Outrunning the memories as much as the danger. 

“Yeah. It is,” she blinked the tears from her eyes, just now realizing that she’d never even got a chance to mourn her son. 

“Far be it for me to tell you how to grieve, but…”

“You’re going to anyway?” she joked, trying to lighten the mood and cheer herself up before she really started crying on her new boss. 

“You sassing me, Parker?” he asked mock-sternly, getting what she was doing. Duke had a tendency to do the same thing. And so did he if he was honest. If there had been any doubt that she would fit in just fine, it was gone now. 

She could see the amusement in his eyes and knew that he was teasing her so she just grinned unrepentantly and said, “Maybe.” 

“Cheeky brat,” he chuckled. Seeing that the emotion had faded and she didn’t look on the verge of tears anymore, he got back to his point. “You shouldn’t avoid talking about him. Keep him alive that way.” 

“I’ll…think about it. Thank you, chief.”

“We’re not on the clock. Call me Simon,” he told her. He’d never been one for formalities in social settings, and since his son had taken a liking to her, she was likely to become more than just an employee so he would treat her as he would any friend of his son.

“Okay…Simon,” she said hesitantly. 

“So what about hobbies? What do you do in your down time?” he asked as he steered them to another booth and bought them both something else to eat. 

Audrey laughed. “I’ve never actually had time for down time or hobbies.” 

“Well at least you will now, and if you ever need any ideas feel free to ask,” he told her. 

Audrey considered something that she should probably ask, just to allay suspicion before she went there. “Well I was wondering if there’s a public library in town?” 

“Sure. It’s about three streets over that way,” he pointed. “On Park Street. Take a left and you can’t miss it. You won’t be able to check books out until you get an ID for a library card, but you can always read there. If you don’t have a town map, you should see about getting one.”

“I have one actually. It came with the book on the town history that Duke got me,” she told him. 

“Good. You read it yet?” 

“Yeah, it was interesting.”

“And a load of crap,” he chuckled. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good start. The substance is right, but that stuff is mostly for tourists. There’s a lot it leaves out, but you’ll pick it up in time. Don’t worry.” 

“Yeah, I can imagine tourists wouldn’t be interested in the drunken cat lady stories, though they might make a funny comic book,” she joked. 

Simon laughed. “Duke told you about her I take it. Mrs. Nelson is a trip, alright. Might have to look into that comic book idea. There’s more than enough stories to go around.” 

“I look forward to hearing more of them.”

“Just wait until you have to deal with it in person,” he chuckled. “We have quite a few interesting characters around here. Especially down at the docks.” 

“I can imagine,” she laughed thinking about the old Duke. Interesting character certainly described him to a tee. 

Simon checked his watch and realized that he needed to head out soon, so he told her, “Your ID should be in Monday morning, so why don’t you come by first thing and we’ll get started on your paperwork and get you working.” 

“Okay. I’ll be there,” she promised, glad that she would have something to do. 

“I’ll see you then. It was nice talking to you, Parker,” he nodded before walking off. 

“You too,” she called after him before turning back to her browsing and getting lost in thought. She had obviously never met the old Simon Crocker. Not that she could remember anyway. This one though…he had the same ability to make her feel at ease as Duke did. It must be hereditary. She didn’t doubt that he could be a hard-ass when necessary, but he was also much more at ease outside of work. She remembered all the times she had run into Garland Wuornos outside the job and he never lost his ‘work demeanor’ so it was a refreshing change. She could see herself coming to look at Simon as something of a mentor. 

Since she had eaten enough to qualify as lunch at the farmer’s market, Audrey’s next stop was the library. She had known where it was of course, but would have been expected to ask. She spent the rest of the afternoon curled up in one of their comfortable chairs reading the first book that had caught her attention. She had just finished it and was looking for another when the librarian kindly told her that it was closing time, so she headed back to the inn and spent the rest of the evening watching television. 

The next morning she slept in and had an early lunch before taking a shower and getting ready for Duke’s visit. He hadn’t given her an actual time. Just said after lunch, so she was bored again by the time she had a knock on her door. “So I ran into your dad yesterday at the farmer’s market,” she told him before they got started. 

“Yeah, he usually spends at least part of every Saturday there. What’d he have to say?” Duke asked, knowing that if she brought it up then she must have news to share. 

“I start work tomorrow,” she grinned. “He told me to be in ‘first thing’ in the morning.”

“Which means he wants you there at start of shift,” Duke told her in case she hadn’t picked up on that. “I can pick you up if you want. More reliable than trying to get a bus that early.”

“I would appreciate that, thank you,” she told him, well used to Nathan picking her up for work, so it wasn’t much different. 

“I’ll be here around six-thirty,” he told her.

“I’ll be ready,” she replied before getting to another thing that she was worried about once she had time to think about it. “Do I need to be worried about him checking up on my story?” 

“I don’t think so. Not unless you raise some red flags. Why?” 

“Well I might have gotten a little loose-lipped. He’s kinda easy to talk to, you know?” she shrugged sheepishly. 

Duke chuckled and shook his head. “Yeah. I know. It’s a gift. Comes in handy during interrogations. I can’t tell you how many things he got me to admit to when I was a kid. You say anything we need to worry about?” 

“I’m not sure. I mean, I mentioned constant disasters to solve back home that didn’t leave me with any time off…”

“He’ll just think it’s exaggeration,” Duke waved that one off. 

“And I mentioned my son that died in an accident,” she winced at that one. 

“I didn’t know you had a son.”

“I did when I was Sarah, but I met him again when I was Lucy and this time around too. A parental bond isn’t so easily severed,” she shrugged, remembering what Simon had said about keeping him alive by talking about him and Duke was the only one that she could take freely with. 

“Do you know what happened to him?” 

“Yeah. He really did die in an accident. Sort of. When the keeper of the barn died, the barn imploded and he was inside,” she sighed sadly. 

“I’m sorry,” Duke said sympathetically pulling her into a hug that she sank gratefully into. 

“It’s silly that it bothers me so much. I mean, I didn’t really know him. I had just met him as Audrey when it happened and I don’t have any other memories of him.” 

“But like you said. A parental bond is something special. Whether you knew him or not,” Duke said gently as they moved to sit on the couch. “Did the other me know about him?” 

“You were with me when I found out about him actually,” she said with a smile, remembering that trip. “When I was Sarah, I put him with a nice family since I was about to disappear, and by the time we tracked down the woman I placed him with, she had sever Alzheimer’s and couldn’t really tell us much, but you stole her photo album for me.” 

“I stole a photo album from a little old lady?” Duke asked, not sure if he was more horrified or amused. 

“We gave it back,” she assured him. “But you wanted to help me learn more about him and we looked through all the pictures of him growing up, straight up to his wedding. I told you then that it was the sweetest form of thievery ever,” she chuckled. 

“Well as long as we gave it back,” Duke shrugged amusedly. “You might want to think up a few baby stories to tell my dad for if he ever asks though.”

“God that’s gonna be a nightmare,” she groaned, putting her head in her hands. “I know /nothing/ about babies.” 

“You should have thought about that before telling him you had a son,” Duke laughed. 

“It’s just…when he asked about family stuff, I hated the idea of pretending he never existed, you know?” she sighed. 

“You could have told me instead,” Duke said gently. 

“I know,” she sighed. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking.” 

“If I were you I’d spend a little time looking up some common baby stories on the internet and modifying them to fit,” Duke suggested. 

“That’s a good idea,” Audrey decided. 

“So you had a daughter-in-law too? Any grandkids?” Duke asked conversationally. 

“No, unfortunately,” she sighed sadly, leaning her back against his side for comfort. “It’s kind of a long story.”

“I’ve got nothing better to do this afternoon,” he told her, draping his arm over the back of the couch and shifting to a more comfortable position. 

“Well it was only a few days after the wedding when he was killed. This was when I was Lucy. I could resurrect him by taking him into the barn, so I did, but they told me that he wouldn’t be able to leave the barn again, so he left with us. Apparently losing him like that triggered his wife’s trouble. She became what we called a skinwalker. She didn’t have her own skin and had to steal the skin of others. While I was gone, she became a serial killer, and once I came back, she started trying to build her old skin back, taking different parts from different women and stitching them together.”

“She sounds like a real piece of work,” Duke shuddered in revulsion. 

“She really was. I told you that I had been kidnapped and tortured at one point…she was the one who did it. Blamed me for her losing James. Once the barn came back, she kidnapped me again and took me to get him out of it and then she left with him, but he couldn’t survive for long outside of the barn’s dimension, so he was getting sicker and sicker. You actually helped get him back. You were a good enough ‘con man’ to convince her that you would help her and led her and James right to Nathan and I. James and I went back into the barn, and that’s when Nathan killed the keeper and it started to implode. You jumped in after me to try and get me out, but it ended up spitting you back out in Boston. It took a while to get me out too, but James was in another part. I didn’t even have access to it, even if I /had/ remembered him at that point since I was already Lexi by then.” 

“So he went down with the barn,” Duke said sadly. “What happened to his wife?” 

“I’m almost certain that she died then too. No one ever told me otherwise at least.”

“Would it be awful for me to say I’m glad?” 

“Not unless you think I’m awful for agreeing,” she huffed a laugh. 

“Not in the slightest,” he said as he wrapped his arm around her and gave a comforting squeeze. “Do you think James might exist in this world?” 

“No,” Audrey shook her head. “He wouldn’t because I didn’t. The only reason I was here as all those people was to help with the troubles. Without the troubles, I never existed, so he was never born. Not to mention he was born thanks to a trouble in the first place.”

“How so?” Duke asked confused. 

“Well, his father was actually, Nathan. A trouble stranded you and Nathan back in nineteen fifty five for a little while and Nathan and Sarah had a little fling before you made it back home.”

“Seriously? First rule of time travel is don’t affect anything,” Duke couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Yeah well you broke a few butterfly wings yourself there mister,” she teased him, getting a poke in the side in response pulling a squeak from her and she smacked his chest. “Anyway, weren’t we going to have a meditation lesson?” she asked trying to change the subject from him asking what he did back in fifty-five. It would bring up too much family drama that she wanted to shield him from if possible. 

“Yeah, sure,” he said moving to get up from the couch. He was skeptical that she would be able to clear her mind easily with all the baggage they had just been talking about, but at least he could walk her through how so she could practice later. He took the incense from his bag and put it on the table to light it. “Come here,” he led her to the only space in the floor of the inn with enough room and he sat down in the classic lotus position. He laughed when she kept falling over when she tried to copy him. “Just sit however you’re comfortable,” he said amusedly. 

She huffed in irritation but took a more basic cross-legged position. “What’s this?” she asked curiously as he handed her a rather ornate brass bowl. 

“A visual aid. The goal is to allow your mind to be as empty as the bowl,” he said in a soft measured cadence. “Close your eyes…and take a deep breath in.” He raised his arms above his head and brought his hands together before pulling them back down to his chest. Audrey kept her eyes open long enough to see what he was doing and copied him after setting the bowl down in front of her. “Let any thoughts leave your mind with each exhale, until there aren’t any left. Focus on each breath until that’s the only thing in your mind and then let that fade away too.” 

Audrey followed along, finding it easier than she had expected and they both lapsed into silence for a long while. She never did get her mind completely empty since new thoughts just kept popping up whenever she got rid of too many, but even with the partial success she felt amazingly better. Right up until her leg cramped. She bit her lip so as not to disturb Duke’s meditation as she got to her feet as quietly as she could to walk it off. On her third pace she noticed Duke watching her amusedly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. Just got a cramp.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m good,” he assured her. “How’d you do?” 

“Aren’t I supposed to be asking you that, sensei?” she chuckled. 

“Maybe. Except I can’t get into your mind, so…the best I can tell you is that you stayed still and quiet for…” he checked the clock. “Almost an hour.”

“Okay, good point,” she conceded. “I don’t think I ever got as empty as the bowl, but the bowl wasn’t full either, so…”

“A good first attempt, then,” Duke nodded in satisfaction. “How do you feel?” 

“Better than I expected…aside from the cramp,” she told him, heading back to the couch now that the worst of it was gone and started to massage the rest out. Duke came and sat next to her, pulling her leg into his lap and taking over in a gesture that was more than familiar to Audrey, and surprisingly comfortable to Duke. So much so that he barely noticed that he’d done it. “I feel…relaxed and energized at the same time if that makes sense.” 

“It does. That’s how you’re supposed to feel,” he pointed out. 

“What scent is that?” she asked curiously. 

“Sandalwood. It’s what works best for me, but feel free to explore and see if something else might work better for you. Actually…now that I think about it…I’m gonna see if I can find some amber incense for you for next time,” Duke said thoughtfully. 

“Why amber?” 

“It helps with journeys of self-discovery and processing major life changes,” he explained as he absentmindedly massaged her calf. 

“Yeah. That sounds like it would help,” she huffed a laugh. “What is the sandalwood good for?” 

“General calming, balance, grounding, and relaxation,” he told her. 

“Well it is working for that anyway,” she chuckled as she leaned back against the arm of the couch and put her other leg in Duke’s lap as he stopped massaging now that the cramp was completely gone. “How often should I do it?” 

“It’d probably be best to practice every day until you get the hang of it, but once you do, it’s up to you. Some people do every day, or a few times a week, or once a week. Some people only ever do it when they feel too stressed.”

“How often do you meditate?” she asked curiously. 

“At least a few times a week. Sometimes every day.” They spent a few more hours chatting, during which time Duke ordered them pizza, before he headed out after dinner, leaving her the bowl and some of his sandalwood incense for the time being. 

Audrey went to bed not long after Duke left, partially due to boredom and partially because she had to be up early in the morning. She set the alarm clock for five am and was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, the relaxing scent of the incense still hanging in the air. Audrey dressed in her powder blue business pantsuit with a white blouse. It didn’t fit her perfectly, of course, but it was good enough to not look sloppy at least. She packed one of her grocery bags with some workout clothes to keep in her locker, along with a couple sandwiches for lunch and was sitting outside on the railing when Duke drove up the next morning. “Excited for your first day?” he asked amusedly. 

“Excited to have something to do other than sitting around? Yeah,” she chuckled. 

It wasn’t a long trip and once they got there, Audrey headed for the chief’s office while Duke headed to his own. It was only a second after her knock before he called her to come in, and she went to sit down in front of the desk. “First…here’s your driver’s license, social security card, and birth certificate,” Simon said as he slid a packet over to her, giving her a moment to look it over. 

“August twenty-sixth eighty-three,” she said aloud, storing her new birthday in her memory. “That mean’s I’ll be…thirty-one in a month and a half.” 

“I just threw a dart at a calendar,” Simon chuckled. 

“As good a way as any,” she laughed. “Thank you again for this. Really.” 

“You’re welcome,” he nodded before grabbing a folder and sliding it over to her. “Here’s your employment paperwork. I already made copies of the documents for the files, so that’s set. The spare desk in detective Crocker’s office is for you so go ahead and start filling them out. Bring them back to me when you’re done and we’ll get your kit assigned.”

“Sounds good, chief,” she said with a grin before taking them and heading into the same office she used in the old Haven. Duke was using what used to be her desk though, so she was stuck with the one that was Nathan’s. 

“I got some asprin over here for your writer’s cramp whenever you need it,” Duke joked. 

“I’m sure I’ll take you up on that soon enough,” she quipped. This would be the third time that she’d gone through this insane stack of papers. First as Audrey in the old Haven, then as Lexi, and now. She had to keep referring to her documents for info, especially her new social, and couldn’t help the smile when she noticed that her middle name was now Alexis. That had to have been Duke’s doing. Now she was both Audrey and Lexi legally. Duke was in and out over the course of the morning, always with a teasing quip, and she realized how much she was really going to enjoy working with him. Nathan had always been so quiet and serious, but it was nice to be able to have fun at work too. 

Audrey hadn’t even realized that it was lunch time until Duke dropped a bag of food on her desk. “Don’t want you fainting from hunger on your first day do we?” 

“I brought some sandwiches,” she shrugged. 

“My sandwich is better,” he smirked taking the sub out of the bag and pushing her folder to the side and plopping it down in a clear order to take a break and eat. 

“Thank you, Duke,” she said sincerely. She could save her own sandwiches for dinner. They chatted while they ate and then Audrey was buried back in her work as Duke pulled out some files of his own. Other than the occasional comment tossed back and forth, they worked quietly for the next hour until Audrey finished what she could, leaving the direct deposit paperwork on top of the folder and headed back to the chief’s office. 

“Excellent. Take that one with you. You can get a bank account set up today now that you’ve got your documentation and then bring it back filled out tomorrow,” Simon told her as he got up and headed to the lock-box on the back wall and brought back a smaller box along with a few other forms already filled out and just waiting for her signature. “Gun, badge, phone…All of the department landlines are already in there and I took the liberty of putting the cell numbers for Duke and myself in there too.” 

“Great. Then I can give him back his burner cell,” she said gratefully as she attached everything to her waist. 

“I doubt there’s enough work that you need to use the burner for that you can’t share it, but just let me know if it becomes an issue and I’ll get you one of your own,” he told her, motioning her to follow him out the door as they went next door to Duke’s and her office and Simon knocked on the doorframe. “If you’ve got a few, why don’t you give Detective Parker here a tour and get her set up with a locker.”

“Sure thing, chief,” Duke said, closing the file he was working on to do just that. 

Simon turned back to Audrey and told her, “Once you’re done with that, take the rest of the day off to get your banking and such done before the banks close and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.”

“Thanks, chief,” she nodded, going to set the direct deposit paperwork on her desk for now and grabbing her bag for the locker. 

Once they were alone Duke said, “I’m sure you don’t need a tour, but appearances and all.” 

“I do need a locker though so it won’t be a /total/ waste of time,” she pointed out amusedly. 

“Who said anything about a waste of time,” he chuckled. “A free break is never a waste.” He gave her the locker next to his and she put her workout clothes inside. She would worry about a lock for it when she had something more valuable to put in it, and from there they headed into the gym on the other side of the locker room and just wandered the building chatting for about twenty minutes before they made their way back to the offices. When she grabbed her stuff to head out, Duke told her, “I’ll pick you up same time in the morning.”

“I’ll be ready.” Her first stop was, of course, the bank. Rather than walk, she decided to take the bus for the sake of time. It would be about a twenty-minute walk versus a five minute bus ride and the bank would only be open for another two hours. She knew how cranky they could get when someone came in for something as time consuming as opening a new account too close to closing. She put the last forty dollars she had into the account and walked out with a new debit card, starter checks, and a stack of paperwork. She was really regretting not taking that asprin Duke offered by now, but unless she wanted to double all the way back to the station to get some, which would be ridiculous, it would be a waste. 

Once she left the bank, she realized that she had time to get to the library before it closed too, and headed that way. It wasn’t important enough to waste the precious little money she had left on a bus ride, so she walked the mile and a half to get there. Thankfully, the form for the library card was relatively short compared to all the other paperwork she’d spent the day doing and she still had time to check out a few books before they closed. She got a handful of pleasure reading books and a couple on meditation techniques before heading back to the inn where she’d lived for six months in the old Haven. This time, a new apartment was going to be a top priority though, so she doubted that she’d be here more than a month or two this time. 

After she ate dinner, she sat down to read a few chapters of the meditation book before lighting the incense and trying again for about an hour with mostly the same results as last time. The rest of the night was spent curled up on the couch with a pleasure book before she went to bed. The next morning, she dropped off the last of the paperwork with the chief before heading back to her office and asking Duke, “Okay, what we got?” He filled her in on the active cases, a dognapping, a shoplifter, and an abandoned vehicle that might end up being a missing person case and they got to work. 

Around mid-afternoon, there wasn’t much else to do, so Duke suggested hitting the gym for a while, pointing out that the chief didn’t like them bunking off early even if there wasn’t anything to do so the gym was an acceptable past-time. Audrey easily agreed, eager to see what the Duke of this world could do in a fight. They needed to be more familiar with each other’s styles anyway if they were going to be partners and this was something that she doubted would be the same. The street fighting style of the old Duke was very different than trained police techniques, though they could be melded together. 

Once they got changed into their workout clothes and met in the gym, Audrey went for the mats as Duke headed for the machines and they both stopped and looked at each other before laughing, having clearly had different ideas. “Come on,” Audrey jerked her head towards the mats. 

Duke raised an eyebrow but shrugged and followed her with every intention to go easy on her until he knew what she could handle. He didn’t doubt that she was tough and skilled, but he had a pretty big size and reach advantage. Unfortunately, he had severely underestimated her and found himself on the mat with her knee in his chest in minutes. “That all you got Crocker?” she asked with a challenging smirk. 

“Okay. You’re good,” he admitted with a smirk of his own before unseating her and quickly getting her pinned. “But don’t go getting cocky on me, Parker,” he chuckled before letting her up. 

Simon often checked in on the gym during the slow afternoons, usually staying out of clear sight. It was a way to help keep tabs on his officers. Watching Duke and Audrey and hearing their banter caused him to tilt his head thoughtfully wondering if they saw it yet. Not that he expected either of them to act on it right away even if they did. Audrey had a little too much going on in her life right now and Duke wouldn’t take advantage of that, but Simon knew chemistry when he saw it and resolved to keep a closer eye on it. They would be good for each other and it was about time his son settled down. He might need to give it a little nudge at some point, but he’d give them time to figure it out for themselves first. He slipped out of the gym unnoticed, as usual, and returned to his work. 

The rest of the week was filled with the simple easy cases that Audrey had longed for in the old Haven, and yeah. It was a little boring, but it was also relaxing. Not to have to run from one disaster to the next, dealing with death and destruction every day. Having time to sit down in the evenings with a good book and get a full night’s sleep. She wondered if her old workaholic tendencies had been carryover from the original Audrey and now her own personality was shining through more or if she had just burned out with as bad as things had gotten for so long. Eventually she decided that she just didn’t care. At least she had a leg up on learning people’s names this time. Most of the people who worked for the department were the same as last time, though there were a few new faces. She didn’t think she would ever be the social type, but she was at least on passingly friendly terms with everyone by the end of her first week. 

When Friday afternoon rolled around and she was getting her stuff ready to leave, Duke came over and perched on the edge of her desk. “You know how you said you never had a chance to just relax and enjoy being on the water and I said we’d fix that one day?” he asked. 

“I remember…” she wondered if this was going where she thought it was. 

“How about tomorrow?” 

“Okay, but…I’m not really sure what to do…or wear, or…anything really,” she said hesitantly. She assumed a small boat like he would probably be renting was a lot different from the fully outfitted Cape Rouge. 

“I would wear long sleeves. I know it’s not really cold out, but with the wind and the spray off the water it can get chilly. Otherwise, whatever you want. Same for what to do. I can teach you to fish or dive or just chat or meditate…it’s up to you.”

“I think I’m gonna need a little more time to work up the nerve for the diving part,” she chuckled. “I can give fishing a try though.” 

“Okay. I’ll make sure we’re set for gear and pick you up at seven,” Duke said as they headed out together. 

“AM right?” she asked just to confirm. 

“Yeah, AM,” Duke laughed. “While I don’t mind night-fishing, it’s easier to learn when you can see what you’re doing.” 

“Makes sense,” she chuckled. “See you then.” She knew that Duke would gladly drive her back to the inn if she asked, but she hadn’t yet. She was sure that there would be some days where they would be particularly busy and she would be too tired to walk, and she would definitely take him up on it when winter rolled around if she didn’t have a car of her own by then, but for now, she enjoyed the half-hour walk back to the inn and it gave her the freedom to wander around town if she felt like it too. That and she didn’t want to take advantage of Duke’s kindness. 

During the walk she thought about the boat trip tomorrow. She remembered talking to Simon about developing some hobbies, and figured fishing was worth a try. She could at least figure out if she liked it or not and even if she didn’t, she hoped to see what it was that Duke loved so much about being on the water. When they got to the docks, Audrey sucked in a sharp breath when she saw who was renting the boats. “Chief Wuornos…” she breathed out. 

Duke looked at her funny but refrained from saying anything at the moment as he said, “Morning Garland.”

“Morning detective. Same boat as usual?” 

“If she’s available,” Duke replied, and got a nod as he handed over his card to pay. It took a couple trips to get all the gear loaded up in the boat, including two large coolers, one small cooler and the fishing gear. Duke waited until they were headed out on the water before he asked, “you knew him? You looked like you’d seen a ghost.”

“I kinda did,” she yelled over the wind as they headed towards a nearby cove. “That was Garland Wuornos. He was the chief of police when I first got to Haven and he died less than a year later.” 

“He’s the one who adopted Nathan?” Duke asked, recognizing the name now that she mentioned it. 

“Yeah, that was him. I guess I’m not surprised to see him at the docks. He had his own fishing boat that he used whenever he had time in the old Haven. Not that there was much time once the troubles came back which was why I didn’t think of it. I’d never seen it, just heard stories.”


	6. Chapter 6

The rest of the trip was spent in silence until Duke stopped the boat in a nice little cove and then it was easier to talk without the engine and wind. “This is my favorite fishing spot. You’re only the third person who knows about it now.” 

“Who’s the other?” 

“My dad, of course. He’s the one who showed it to me,” Duke told her as he started pulling out the gear and getting it ready. 

It took her a few tries to get the hook baited where the bait wouldn’t fall off. Then a few more times to master the basic cast. Once he had her all set up, Duke cast his own line and then sat down in the chair and put his feet up. Audrey copied him and asked, “Okay, now what?” 

“Now we just relax and wait for a bite,” he said comfortably. “Water, soda, or beer?” 

“I’ll have a beer,” she replied and he reached into the cooler between them and pulled out two bottles, popped both caps off and then handed her one. They clinked the necks of the bottles together before taking a long drink. “So I’ve heard we’re not supposed to talk while fishing so we don’t scare the fish away?” 

Duke laughed and shook his head. “That’s a myth. People use that when they just want some peace and quiet. Sound doesn’t travel through water enough to disturb the fish.” 

“Okay. That’s good. I don’t know if I can be quiet for an entire day,” she joked. 

“That doesn’t surprise me a bit,” Duke teased, getting smacked in the arm for it as Audrey huffed amusedly. They did end up sitting in silence for a little while before Audrey got the first bite of the day and Duke helped her reel it in and showed her how to take it off the hook and it got tossed into a cooler. That time Audrey managed to bait her hook and cast right on the first try. “You’re a quick study,” Duke observed. 

“Always have been once I bother to try,” she chuckled. She had been debating asking him a question all week, wanting to avoid his questions in return, but she couldn’t resist any longer. “So I’m curious…do you have a brother in this world too?” 

“I have a half-brother,” Duke told her. 

“Wade?” 

“Yeah. He grew up with his mom, but usually spent a few weeks of the summer here growing up. We don’t really talk much anymore. He’s some high-tech stockbroker or something living in New York with his wife. I told you about him?” 

“I met him actually,” she told him, knowing that this story would be safe to tell and might even get him to reach out to his brother. “See I told you how the barn imploded and spit you out, but what I didn’t say was that time worked differently in there. What was a few seconds for you was six months here, so everyone thought you were dead.” 

“But if you were in the barn too while he handled everything how did that lead to you meeting him?” Duke asked confused. 

“Because he didn’t just breeze into town, handle your affairs, and leave. He stayed. Ran your business, took care of your boat, and commuted back and forth to New York as needed. He didn’t want to just get rid of everything that you’d worked for and wasn’t about to give up hope on you until there was an actual body to prove it,” Audrey told him. 

“Really? Wow. That’s…um…”

“He loves you, Duke. He’s just bitter because you got to be raised by your dad and he felt abandoned,” she explained. 

“Okay, but if dad was a serial killer in that world…”

“Wade didn’t know that. And you didn’t want to tell him. You didn’t want to ruin his image of your father, not to mention you wanted to keep him far away from the troubles which you also didn’t want to tell him about.” 

“Wait…but if he was in Haven with the troubles…wouldn’t his have been activated? And you said that /all/ the other Crockers fell to the curse…” Duke felt a pit of ice in his gut. 

Audrey winced. That was exactly why she’d been so hesitant to bring up the topic. She’d tried to keep it to the nice stuff, but of course Duke had to go all detectivey and put too many pieces together. There was no getting out of this now though. “There are things you don’t know about the Crocker family curse…”

“Like what?” Duke asked worriedly. 

“To start with, whenever you came into contact with the blood of a troubled person, it sort of…transformed you. Your eyes would glow a bright silver and you would get insanely strong. The first time it happened you threw a huge guy a few hundred yards off your boat with one hand and next to no effort. But also…It gave you a rush. You once said that it was like pure heaven. And it caused a bloodlust geared towards any troubled person. The fact that you were able to fight against that was a miracle. I can’t imagine how much strength it must have taken.”

“But Wade wasn’t as strong?” Duke asked with a sigh. 

“No. He wasn’t. You tried to help him as much as you could, but he wouldn’t let you and kept going behind your back and killing people.” 

“What happened to him?” Duke asked tightly. 

“You don’t need to know that,” Audrey tried not to answer despite knowing that it wouldn’t work. 

“Yeah. I do, Audrey. Please.”

“Why? What does it even matter? That world doesn’t even exist anymore,” she all but begged him to drop it. 

“Because he’s my brother. I need to know what would have happened to him in that other world just as much as me and my dad. You didn’t even fight this much about telling me that my dad was a serial killer or that you killed him which just means this must be so much worse and if I don’t know then my subconscious is going to make up horrible scenarios.”

“And if the truth is worse than anything your mind can come up with?” she asked pointedly. 

“You really think I can’t handle it?” Duke asked, getting irritated. “What happened to how strong I am?” 

“It almost broke you, Duke,” she said sadly. “We almost lost you because of it. In more ways than one.”

“But I made it through,” he told her. “If I lived it there, then I can handle hearing about it here.” 

Audrey sighed heavily and considered lying to him. Making up some story…any story. She knew that Duke would see right through it though and then she would damage the trust between them. No, she couldn’t lie to him. At least he was in his happy place right now and that might help him deal with it better. “Okay…but I want it on the record that I tried.”

“I know,” Duke said tightly. 

She reeled in her hook and set her pole aside before starting the story. “When you found his dumping ground for the bodies and realized what he’d been doing, you asked me to track his phone. Once you found him, you saved the person he was after and tried to talk him down. Get him to see reason and let you help him control it, but he refused. You knocked him out and took him back to the boat to lock him up until you could get through to him.”

“I’m guessing I didn’t?” 

“No. You didn’t even really get much of a chance,” she admitted. “See, you had a roommate on the boat. A friend who was staying with you because she didn’t have anywhere else to go. She was supposed to be at work and you had to go up and handle an emergency at the Gull, but while you were gone, she came back to get something and heard Wade banging on the door and he told her that he accidentally locked himself in, so she let him out.”

“Oh god,” Duke groaned. 

“I can stop…”

“No, keep going,” he said firmly. 

Audrey sighed again. “He was trying not to kill her and just take a little bit of her blood, but by the time you got back he was on the verge of losing control and you jumped in to stop him. You got the knife away from him and stood between Wade and Jennifer trying to talk him down.”

“Please tell me I didn’t…”

“According to Jennifer, he did it himself. She said that he was talking about how he couldn’t control it. It was too strong. Then he said that he was sorry and he ran at you, straight into the knife.” 

Duke closed his eyes and took a few steadying breaths, but that didn’t help much because closing his eyes meant seeing the scene she described play out, but he couldn’t bring himself to open them either and let loose the tears that were waiting there. He swallowed around the lump in his throat, still focusing on his breathing as he tried to get himself under control. He had killed his brother. It didn’t matter who moved first or how. He was holding the knife that killed his brother. He jumped when he felt Audrey’s warm hand settle on his arm and he just shook his head. He couldn’t speak right now and didn’t want her to either. When her hand moved down his arm to settle on his hand, he couldn’t help but grip her tight. To use her as an anchor. 

Audrey felt horrible. She should have just kept refusing to tell him. She knew he wouldn’t have let it go though. For some reason he felt the need to know what happened to his family in that world. She didn’t understand why, but there was a lot about Duke that she’d never understood and just had to accept at face value. She wished she had never brought Wade up. She had just thought that since he didn’t talk about his brother then they might be estranged and maybe knowing that he cared would help. 

Duke was jolted out of his mental horror loop by a tug on his line and he briefly considered just cutting the line and calling it a loss, but decided against it. He reeled the fish in, tossed it in the cooler and then set his pole aside, grasping blindly for Audrey’s hand that he’d lost to do so and soon found it placed back in his. “I’m sorry, Duke,” she whispered as she lost the hold on her tears. Seeing him so lost and in so much pain and knowing that it was her fault was too much for her. 

“You…” he had to clear his throat. “You said…you almost lost me…h-how…”

“You were a wreck,” she said softly, moving her chair closer and shifting her other hand into his so that she could run her hand through his hair soothingly. “I didn’t understand why. You didn’t tell me what happened and swore Jennifer to secrecy.”

“Why?” he croaked. It wasn’t like he would be in any trouble under the circumstances and if Audrey really was his best friend…

“Once we found out and Jennifer was free to talk about it…you never would…she told me that you didn’t want me to know because you felt like you had let me down. Because when he first activated his curse he stabbed someone right in front of me and almost killed him. You asked me not to arrest him and promised to help him and teach him to control it like you did…but you didn’t let me down, Duke. You tried. You went above and beyond what anyone could have asked of you. I never blamed you for any of it. If anything, I blamed me.”

Duke’s eyes snapped open, tears still shining in them and he turned to look at her confused. “Why?” 

“Because I should have arrested him from the start. I could have let you try and talk to him while he was locked up safely. I should never have put so much on your shoulders. You always took on so many burdens. All the time. I shouldn’t have let you, though. Not that one. I’m so sorry. For that and for telling you all this.”

“No, I…I’m glad you did,” Duke said shakily. The more he understood about that world the better he understood Audrey. How their friendship had evolved. How she had come to count on him so much and all the ways that he could count on her. It helped him to understand the way she interacted with him which helped him make sense of his own feelings. It also helped him understand himself better. Learning what he would do and how he would react to different situations in a different life gave him insights into his own psyche too. 

“You are?” she asked surprised. 

He didn’t know how to begin to put all that into words so he just ignore the question. “You were saying how you almost lost me.”

“Yeah, okay,” she let it go, unwilling to push him about anything right now. She’d done enough damage already. “Well like I said, you were a wreck and I didn’t understand why. You were blowing us off, snapping and snarling all the time. I found out later that you were about to blow town and disappear for good when you stumbled into the next mess. If it hadn’t been for the fact that you couldn’t bring yourself to walk away and let people die, you would have been gone before any of us knew what happened. I found out what happened when you lost it at Nathan and punched him, bloodying his nose and your hand, but you didn’t transform.”

“Because if I kill someone with a trouble it kills it for the whole family. I killed my own trouble,” Duke realized hauntedly. 

“Yeah, and I think that just made it worse, because I think deep down your were relieved about that part, and felt even more guilty for it,” she said softly. 

“So Nathan was troubled too then? If his blood should have transformed me?” Duke tried to focus on something else. At least for a minute. He needed to get his equilibrium back. 

“Yeah. He couldn’t feel any kind of touch. Except for mine since I’m immune to the troubles.”

“Oh right. I remember you telling me that. The sledding incident,” he realized. He took a steadying breath before getting back to the main topic. “But once that was handled I still didn’t leave town?” 

“No,” Audrey gave a sad smile, twirling her fingers in his hair. “I’m not sure what Nathan said to you. I wasn’t there for it, but you seemed like you were going to stay. It wasn’t long after that before all this happened, and that was part of the reason I wanted so badly to keep this world. Because I didn’t know how to begin helping you there and here…here you were happy. At peace. You didn’t have to live with those horrors. At least until I just went and shoved them on you.” 

“Like I said, I’m glad you did,” Duke told her. “If nothing else, it makes me appreciate this life more. Helps to not take things for granted, you know?” 

“Yeah. I guess,” she sighed. Now that he was back together she got up and moved behind him, pulling the elastic off the little bit of hair that was still in it after she messed it all up and retied it for him. “But still…”

“If my forgiveness is what you need to get past it, then you have it. Not that you have anything to be forgiven for. What’s done is done. There’s no point dwelling on it anymore. Kay?” 

Audrey huffed a laugh. “Yeah, okay.” 

“But I think I need a bit to meditate after all that.” 

“Yeah. I get that. I think I’ll join you,” she decided and the next couple hours were spent in silent meditation until their growling stomachs distracted them. Duke pulled out some sandwiches for a now late lunch and fourth beers for both of them before they got back to fishing for the rest of the afternoon with light conversation sprinkled in. Duke didn’t ask any more about the old Haven that day and Audrey was glad for it. Neither of them could have taken much more. 

Once the sun started to go down, they started packing up and Duke asked her, “So what do you think of fishing?” 

“I don’t know. Ask me again after you teach me how to clean and gut the things,” she said amusedly. 

Duke barked a laugh. “I’ll tell you what. If you like the fishing part but not the rest, I’ll do that part for you. I don’t mind it.” 

“Then yeah. The fishing part is nice. I mean, I can’t see myself doing it all the time like some people do, but sometimes yeah. It’s relaxing. And I see what you mean about being on the water,” she told him. 

Once they got back they headed to one of the outdoor stations by the boat rental to clean and gut the fish and once it was over, Duke asked, “So what’s the verdict?” 

“If you’ll do the scaling part, I can handle the rest,” she grimaced as she kept finding more scales stuck all over here and it was gross. “At a different station where the scales aren’t flying around,” she added. 

Duke chuckled and nodded. “Deal.” That was his least favorite part too, but it didn’t bother him nearly as much as it seemed to bother her. “I’ll deal with the scales, you can handle the guts.” 

They got everything loaded back up in Duke’s truck and headed out. “Since I don’t have a stove at the inn and barely a freezer, you might as well keep all the fish,” she told him. 

“Okay. But I’m cooking half of it and bringing it to you,” he decided. 

Audrey snorted in amusement. “Okay. If you insist.”

“Trust me. It tastes so much better when you catch it yourself,” Duke assured her. 

“If you say so,” she said skeptically.

Once he pulled up at the inn to drop her off, he grabbed her arm before she got out. “I almost forgot.” He reached over and opened the glove box and handed her a bundle of incense. “The yellow ones are the amber and I also got you a variety of other scents that are known to be good for meditation. They’re all labeled, so you’ll know what works for you.” He’d needed to restock his incense too, and incense was incredibly cheap so it hadn’t been any bother to grab her some too. 

“Thanks, Duke. I really appreciate it,” she said gratefully. 

“Anytime. I’ll pick you up for work on Monday,” he reminded her before she got out. 

The first thing Audrey did when she got inside was strip out of her clothes and jump in the shower. She could still feel the freaking scales everywhere. It wasn’t long before she realized that her clothes smelled like fish too so she put them in one of the grocery bags she’d saved and tied it up tight before tossing it in her dirty clothes pile. She would have to pull out some money tomorrow to hit the laundromat. At least it would all fit in one load. She had done this often enough in old Haven that she automatically brought a book with her. At least this time she could be relatively certain that she wouldn’t end up with some emergency that would make her leave them unattended for who knew how long.

The following Friday, her first paycheck was deposited and she could breathe easier. She still spent as little as she possibly could, saving up for an apartment. With all the security deposits, the apartment and all the utilities, plus getting furniture and all the home furnishings she would need to get started, it would take quite a bit of up-front cash, so she stayed with her cheap diet, though she did start taking the bus around a bit more often. She was just glad that she didn’t have to deal with the early morning busses since Duke always picked her up for work. 

Over the next month, she had gone out fishing with Duke one more time and they’d hung out outside of work a couple Sundays, and she was settling into her new life pretty well. She was friendly with a lot of people at the station, but Duke was still her only close friend. Though she considered Simon a friend too and had built a sort-of friendship with Vince and Dave due to sheer stubbornness on her part. She wanted as much of her old life back as she could get. The good parts anyway. She thought about Nathan often, but didn’t seek him out. Partially because she had no idea how to make friends with random people who didn’t know her and had nothing in common with her, but mostly because she didn’t think she could handle this Nathan. Seeing him and always expecting him to be like the one she knew and getting used to him would hurt too much, so she just let it go and let him live his happy life, completely oblivious to her presence. At least she still had Duke. 

She had been in new Haven for about two months when Duke came by to hang out, but then wanted to take her somewhere else. She just shrugged and went along with it, seeing no reason not to. She didn’t even realize that it was the Saturday before her new birthday since she wasn’t used to her birthday being at the end of August. When they drove up at a house she didn’t recognize she looked at him confused, even more so when she noticed the name Crocker on the mailbox. Was this his dad’s house? Why were they here? When he opened the door to let her in and everyone jumped out and yelled surprise, she yelped and all but fell backwards and he had to catch her from falling with a laugh. When she turned around to gape at him, he put a party hat on her head and smirked. “Gotcha.” 

“You…you…” the happy memory that was slamming into her caused tears to well up in her eyes. She couldn’t believe that he got her /again/. 

“Hey, are you crying?” he asked taking her chin in his hand. “Crying will not be tolerated.”

She blinked the tears out of her eyes at the memory of those words from another Duke Crocker and bumped him playfully with her shoulder. “Shut up. I am still armed,” she sniffled before turning to the rest of the guests. “I can’t believe you threw me a birthday party.” She almost added the word again, but cut it off in time. 

“Why shouldn’t we celebrate your birthday?” Simon asked cheerfully leading her into the living room where a pile of gifts were on one table and a cake and chips on another. 

“I just…I’ve never had a birthday party before,” she said, choosing to publicly ignore the only one she’d ever had since it hadn’t actually happened in this world. She would tell Duke about it later though. If nothing else to give him a laugh over history repeating itself. 

Simon gave her a sad look before wiping it off. “Well now you have,” he told her. “So since you’re the birthday girl, you get to pick. Presents or cake first?” 

“Cake,” she said. “That way everyone can enjoy it before we get to the selfish part,” she chuckled. 

“You’re not allowed to call opening presents on your birthday selfish,” Duke teased. 

“He’s right about that,” Dave agreed as they gathered around the cake. 

She found herself tearing up again as a dozen people sang Happy Birthday to her and her wish when she blew out the candles was just for this world to never disappear. Once Simon cut the cake and passed it out, Duke went to hit the music and the next while was spent just mingling and having fun. She told Duke at one point, “Remind me to tell you about my last birthday when we’re alone.” He laughed and nodded. 

It was about an hour before she found herself steered to the presents and she started opening them. The first one she opened was from Simon and she gasped when she saw it and for the first time that night, the tears actually fell from her eyes. “This is…you…but…”

“I know you lost all your old photos in the incident that brought you here,” he said cryptically for those not in the know about the cover story. “And obviously I couldn’t get those replaced, but I figured you might like some new memories.” 

“This is…I just…” she trailed off and opened the album and flipped through the pages, seeing a lot of candid shots of her around town. There were a lot from the station, most including Duke, some with Simon. Some picture of her from around town, including one of her talking with Vince and Dave, and even one with her leaning on Duke and laughing at the café where they often had lunch. Only the first ten pages or so were filled with the rest ready to put new memories in. She reached up to wipe her tears as she closed it and then got up and hugged Simon tightly as she whispered, “Thank you so much. There aren’t even words for how much this means to me.”

Simon chuckled and hugged her back. He’d gotten very fond her and was starting to get impatient for his son to get a move on and make her more officially family. Not that it would be /actually/ official until they were married and that was probably a long way off still. “You’re very welcome,” he whispered back. 

Once she got back to her seat, Duke squeezed her shoulder comfortingly, and she beamed up at him before grabbing the next present off the stack from Dave which happened to be a gorgeous dress. Another flash back to her last party. This one was a different color and style though, but just as pretty. She thanked him profusely and then grabbed Vince’s gift which was a nice pantsuit in the same dark green color as the dress. They had clearly coordinated. She could even wear the coat from the suit with the dress if it was too cold. The rest of the people from the station got her a variety of home goods that might be more at place at a housewarming party, but she was grateful for them nonetheless. She ended up with a set of coffee mugs, a coffee maker, a dish set, cutlery, a cheap set of pots and pans, a few throw blankets, and a full bedding set. That would all really come in handy for when she got an apartment and she thanked everyone more than once. 

After the presents were over and the music started back up, Duke pulled her to the side. “Let me guess. You don’t do public displays of gift giving?” she laughed. 

“Something like that,” he chuckled. “Heard that before have you?” 

“Maybe,” she grinned. 

“But also because my gift isn’t physical per se,” he shrugged. 

“Okay…” she waited for the punch line. His last gift to her was technically a necklace, but really more in the line of information about who she thought at the time was her mother, so she wondered what it was that he’d come up with this time. 

“Just know, that you can say no and it won’t hurt my feelings. I’ll just get you something else.”

“Okay…” she said again expectantly. 

“There’s an apartment available in my building. I talked the landlady into taking the security deposits in installments of an extra hundred a month so you don’t have to worry about saving up so much in advance and basic utilities are included so that’s covered too. Just electricity and water. You’d have to pay for your own tv or internet, but…”

She cut him off by pulling him into a tight hug. “Thank you, Duke. And I’m definitely not saying no. This is perfect.”

He hugged her back, lifting her off the floor a bit before setting her back down. “I hoped you’d like it.”

“I really do. And now all the household gifts make sense,” she laughed. “Did you tell everyone what you were doing?” 

“No, I just told them to get you stuff to help furnish an apartment. I didn’t tell them why.” 

“You’re the best friend ever,” she grinned, giving him one more quick hug before getting back to the party. 

“Are you ever going to ask the girl out?” Simon asked sidling up to Duke who was just looking after her with a smile. 

“It’s complicated,” he admitted. 

“Don’t look that complicated to me,” Simon chuckled, leaving it at that as he rejoined the party. That night, both Duke and Audrey stayed overnight. In different bedrooms, of course, Duke using his old room from when he was a kid and Audrey in the spare bedroom. The next morning, all Audrey’s gifts were loaded up in Duke’s truck and they headed to meet the landlady. With Duke vouching for her, she got to skip the application portion and get straight to the lease. Audrey had plenty for the first month’s rent saved up, even with the extra hundred dollars and she got the keys right away. Since she didn’t have to worry about the utilities and most of the basic things that she’d gotten for her birthday, she even had enough for some cheap furniture. Especially once Duke took her to a flea market in the next town. The bed she bought new, of course, but the couch along with a set of tables including a coffee table and two end tables came from the flea market as well as a dresser. They weren’t the best quality, but they were good enough to get her by until she could afford better. All that only set her back fifty bucks and then two fifty for the bed. 

Duke loaded it all up in his truck and Simon met them to help get it into her new apartment which happened to be right across the hall from Duke’s. All her birthday gifts had already been dropped inside before they left, so then it was just one more quick trip to the inn to grab her stuff from there. Duke helped her get all the furniture into position and then left her to get unpacked and settled in, reminding her that he was right across the hall if she needed anything. 

Audrey started with her groceries from the inn before moving on to her birthday presents, tossing the throw blankets on the couch, making up the bed, and then getting all the kitchen stuff unpacked from their boxes and put away. She set the photo album on the coffee table for now and then started getting her clothes and toiletries put up. It was after dark by the time she finished and she realized that she hadn’t eaten since the breakfast Duke had cooked for the three of them that morning, so she stopped to eat before heading back to the living room and sitting on her new couch. She picked up the photo album and opened it up, taking more time to study every picture as her eyes filled with tears again. 

The next morning, Audrey was already ready when Duke knocked on her door to head to work, but it was a slow morning. While they were going through their files from last week, catching up on the paperwork aspect, Duke asked, “You wanted me to remind you to tell me about your last birthday?” 

Audrey laughed and nodded. “Yeah. You got me then too. Dragged me out of bed at the crack of dawn on a Saturday because you had something ‘important to show me’. I grumbled the whole way. You took me to the docks and onto a boat and out to Carpenter’s Knot. In that Haven the hotel had been shut down and abandoned since the early eighties, but invitations got wrangled for the weekend. I was totally creeped out, walking into an old, abandoned hotel with no idea what was going on.” 

“I bet,” Duke laughed. 

“The only reason I wasn’t completely panicked was because you were there with me and I knew you’d have my back. That and you wouldn’t have brought me there to put me in danger in the first place.”

“How long had we known each other at that point?” Duke couldn’t help but ask. 

“Almost six months. We’d been friends for about three,” she told him. 

“And you already trusted me that much?” he asked surprised. 

“We’d been through a lot,” she told him with a smile. “But anyway…so we’re in this creepy hotel and everything is dark and suddenly someone reaches out and grabs my shoulder and I screamed bloody murder and fell into you…”

“Apparently a habit of yours at surprise parties,” he laughed, and she threw a pen cap at him. 

“And you gave me the same ‘crying will not be tolerated’ comment,” she said in an imitation of his voice. 

“And then what?” he asked when she didn’t say anything else. 

“And then everything went to shit like it always did,” she huffed. “Turned out old man Carpenter was a shapeshifter, there was screaming and death and everyone turning on each other and blah blah blah. But it started out nice.” 

“What did I get you that ‘didn’t do public displays of gift-giving’?” he asked realizing that she wanted to avoid that subject and willing to let her for the most part. 

“Technically…you got me a necklace. But the real gift was the fact that it belonged to my past self who, at the time I thought was the mother that gave me up for adoption, and information that we hoped would help me track her down,” she told him with a happy smile. 

“Okay, that’s a pretty good gift. A lot better than a deal on an apartment.”

“No, I’d say they were just as good. Both of them were what I wanted most at that time,” Audrey told him. “You’ve always been the best gift-giver…and now I see where you got it from,” she chuckled. 

“I figured you’d like the album,” he grinned. 

“Did you know he was taking all those pictures for it?” 

“Yep. I even helped take some too,” Duke smirked. 

“I wondered how he got some of them…especially the one of me and him standing in the doorway of his office.” 

“Yeah, that one was me. So were the ones by the docks. I snuck those on our last fishing trip. The rest were him though.” 

“I never even saw him around most of those times for the ones around town,” she shook her head at her obliviousness. She could tell that they weren’t taken in a creepy way like he’d been following her around. More like just snapping a picture when he happened to notice her. “Whose idea was it to invite Vince and Dave?” she asked curiously. 

“Mine. I know you’re not the closest with them right now, but you said you were close to them in the old Haven so I thought you’d appreciate them being there.”

“Thank you. I did,” she smiled brightly at him. Vince and Dave were difficult to get close to in this time, but she was making progress. Apparently since she wasn’t the ‘savior of the troubles’ this time they weren’t quite as welcoming. Not to mention she hadn’t made the best first impression on them that first day when she seemed crazy and they thought she was a homeless person, which…technically she was, but still. She’d gotten to talk to them a bit at the party and hopefully that would break the ice. 

The conversation was interrupted by a call about a stolen boat down at the docks, so it was time to get to work. Over the course of the week, Duke was getting more and more standoffish with Audrey and even getting a little snippy. She thought it was just frustration over the case, but once they got it solved, it didn’t let up and ended up escalating into a big argument as they drove home after work on Friday and they both stormed into their respective apartments and slammed their doors. Audrey was more than a little irritated. She didn’t understand what Duke’s problem was all of a sudden. Then she remembered the last time he had gotten so pissy and went from irritated to worried in a span of minutes. Clearly, he was dealing with something…something that he wasn’t talking to her about. 

Duke poured himself a drink and paced his apartment for a long while, trying to chill out and get his head on straight and especially figure out what was with him lately. Why he was so prickly with Audrey all of a sudden. Once his anger had bled away, he refilled his drink and sat down looking back over his memories to try and find the moment it started. It had been the Monday after the birthday party. When she was telling him about her last birthday party. The comparisons between himself and the other him from her old world. But why had that bothered him. It never had before. Then he remembered what his father had said at the party. About asking her out and he sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. He got it now. 

Somehow he had managed to fall in love with Audrey…or maybe he always had been and it had just taken a while for him to realize it. Either way, he felt like he was competing with his other self for her heart which was stupid. He knew it was stupid and he had to find some way to get through that and he decided to meditate on the problem. By the time he was done, he was kicking himself for being an idiot. He didn’t have to compete with his other self. He was still himself. She had told him that often enough and it was clear through her stories. Sure, there were differences, but only on the surface. The man underneath…that was still the same. Now he just had to hope that she felt the same way. And that she was over the other boyfriend. He was pretty sure she was, but couldn’t be positive. The next morning, he was trying to think of how to apologize before he smiled at a memory and just went to make coffee. A little while later, he was knocking on her door with two full cups of coffee.


	7. Chapter 7

Audrey opened the door to find Duke standing there, still looking sleep rumpled in his sweats and a-line undershirt holding two mugs of coffee with a hopeful expression. She grinned and opened the door wide, taking one of the cups as he came in. She had already started her own coffee, but at least they would have refills. “I was an idiot,” Duke said apologetically as he sat down on her couch. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked gently. 

“About what?” 

“About whatever it was you were dealing with that had you so prickly?” 

Duke huffed a laugh. Of course, she had figured that much out. Sometimes it seemed like she knew him better than he knew himself. He wished he knew her that well, but he was getting there. “Maybe later. But I’ve got a handle on it now.” 

“Good. I don’t like when you’re hurting,” she said sadly, putting a hand on his arm comfortingly. 

“Especially when I lash out and hurt you because of it,” he added. 

“No, I’m okay with that part. It’s usually the only way I know you’re struggling with something,” she chuckled. 

“You still don’t deserve it,” he told her. 

“I know. But it’s not like you make a habit of it. We all get pissy sometimes,” she shrugged. “It’s not a big deal and I know you don’t mean it.” 

“Well I’m still sorry.”

“I know that too,” she chuckled leaning against his side comfortably. “I missed this,” she sighed happily after a few minutes. 

“What part exactly?” he asked curiously. 

“Just relaxing and sharing our morning coffee with you.”

“You mean with the other me?” Duke asked probingly. 

“You’re still you, Duke. In all the ways that matter,” she replied before it dawned on her and she sat up enough to turn and look at him. “Is that what was bothering you?” 

“Yes and no,” he said with a confused hand gesture. When she raised an eyebrow waiting for more he sighed as he tried to think of how to put it before he thought of something. “Okay, so it’s kinda like what you were telling me about you and Lexi. Just trying to figure out where I end and he begins and how it all fits together.” 

“Yeah, I guess I can understand that,” she admitted. “Have I made it worse by talking so much about it? I thought you enjoyed it or I wouldn’t have…”

“No, I do enjoy it. I’m glad you talk about it. I just had a little identity crisis for a bit,” he shrugged. 

“But you’ve got a handle on it now?” she asked hopefully. 

“Yeah. Like you said, I’m still the same person in all the important ways. No matter what version it is I’m still me. It’s nothing more than some missing memories.”

“And that’s something I definitely know a thing or two about,” she snorted amusedly. 

“Yeah, if anyone can understand all this, you can,” he chuckled. 

“Then why didn’t you talk to me?” she asked, feeling a little hurt. 

“Because I didn’t even realize it until it all boiled over last night and it took a while to pinpoint the cause.”

“Yeah, I guess I get that,” she admitted. “At least you’re okay now?” 

“Yeah. I’m perfect,” he gave her a soft smile, tilting his hand forward from the back of the couch to brush over her shoulder and she settled back against his side. “So we’re okay?” he asked hopefully. He had made a bit of an ass of himself. 

“Of course, we are,” she chuckled holding up the cup of coffee as an example. 

“I’ll always care,” he whispered, remembering what she’d said about the fact that he brought her coffee made everything okay because it meant that he cared enough to try and fix it. 

“I’m glad,” she whispered back before stretching up to peck his cheek. 

They lapsed into a comfortable silence as they finished their coffees, and even through the refills that she got up to get them while Duke tried to screw up his courage to ask the one question that he’d avoided all this time for fear of it influencing his feelings before he had them figured out. They were just finishing up their second cups when he asked, “You said before, back at the beginning that we got ‘close to something’ at one point but then I pushed you away. What happened?” 

She sat back and scrutinized him for a moment, trying to decide if this would send him into another identity crisis, before she figured it was safe enough. “You mean, you want the details?” 

“Yeah. What exactly do you mean by ‘close to something’ and how did I push you away?” 

“Well…it was on the same trip where we found out about James, before we figured it all out. We knew that I would be disappearing in less than three weeks, but we didn’t know why or how yet. We were sprawled on the motel room bed, drinking beers and going through papers and pictures and we just kept going in circles trying to figure out which of my past lives was who, and I guess I ended up in my own identity crisis because I got so frustrated I could scream. I got up and started pacing. I might have ranted a little bit about how much I was missing out on and you laughed and told me that you’d been telling me that for a month, since we found out that I would be disappearing.” 

“Makes sense to me,” Duke chuckled. “Live each day to the fullest and all.” 

“Yeah, exactly, but then I started talking about how it had all been such a waste of time and your tune just…changed. You sat up and told me how I hadn’t wasted anything. Everything I’d accomplished and telling me that we could beat the whole disappearance thing. That you weren’t just going to let me go without a fight.” 

“You got that right,” he huffed. 

“I was just so tired though and I plopped down on the bed next to you and told you that I just wanted to live my life. I didn’t want to fight anymore and you just looked me in they eye and said, ‘okay.’ You said that whatever I wanted to do, however I wanted to live it you were ‘in’. That was when it dawned on me just how amazing you were. You had dropped everything and got on a plane all they way to Colorado on no notice for me. You were always just there. Supporting me, no matter what. When I pointed that out, you just said, ‘Audrey, I’d do anything you need me to’ and…we just got lost in each other’s eyes and then we were kissing and it was…intense. Amazing. /Real/. But then, suddenly you were shutting yourself off again. Retreating back inside your shell, so I backed off.” 

“You just let it go at that?” he asked confused and even a little hurt. 

“I only had twenty days left in this world. I couldn’t have lived with pushing something that you didn’t want and ruining the best friendship I’d ever had that close to the end,” she sighed. “Plus the fact that I was pretty buzzed and definitely needed some air before I just said screw it and jumped you,” she laughed. “By the time I got back inside, you were asleep on the couch and the next morning it was just…forgotten. You acted like nothing had changed and I was afraid to push it. I /let/ you push me away and I’ve always regretted that. I just wish I could have known why.”

“I have a few theories on that if you’re interested.” The least he could do is give her what little peace of mind he could. Wrap up the past issues before they could move forward, so to speak. 

“Well if anyone could figure out what you were thinking it would be you,” she chuckled. 

“First of all, you said I was playing matchmaker for you and Nathan afterwards, right?” She nodded. “Which means I must have known that Nathan had a thing for you and it’s bad form to go for the girl your buddy has his heart set on. Not to mention, you said that he couldn’t feel anyone’s touch but yours so I probably felt like I’d be cheating him out of the only real thing he could ever have.” 

“That makes sense…It’s stupid because I’m a person not a possession and should be able to make my own decision,” she huffed. “But it makes sense.”

“You’re right. Which is why all that was probably just an excuse because…because I was scared,” he swallowed heavily. He knew he would have been because he was now. “Because I was afraid that you were just getting caught up in the moment and that you didn’t love me like I did you. Because I was afraid of just how much I loved you and how vulnerable that made me.” It was easier admitting it when talking about a past event that he couldn’t even remember than it would have been to admit it now. 

Audrey met his eyes, getting lost in the depth and the vulnerability she could see there, along with the fear that he couldn’t manage to conceal and she found herself wondering how much of that was his theory about the past and how much he was talking about now. “What makes you think that you loved me?” she asked in barely a whisper, unable to tear her eyes away from his. 

“Because I do,” he breathed out just as quietly. “Because from the moment we met there was something there and I can’t believe that I wouldn’t have felt it in that world too.” 

Audrey reached her hand to his cheek as her breath seemed to be leaving her as fast as it came. “I wasn’t just caught up in the moment. I…I’m /not/ just caught up in the moment,” she moved from past tense to present tense. “I…I did…/do/ feel the same way…I…” she was cut off by his lips on hers and she kissed him back desperately and it was Colorado all over again. That same fire just flared to life threatening to consume them both and god how she hoped that he would just let it this time.

Her hand moved from his cheek to tangle in his hair while her other hand grasped at his shoulders. His hands were clutching at her sides and back, and as his lips moved down to her neck she let out a mewling sound and then he stopped. Just rested his lips against her shoulder, panting for breath and she felt her heart clench. The last time she had moved away at this point, but not this time. She loosened the hand that was in his hair, but kept a steady grip on him. “I’m not letting you push me away again,” she said shakily. 

Duke lifted his head just enough to look at her, eyes darkened with lust. “Good,” he whispered with a slight growl to his voice that went straight to Audrey’s groin and it was all she could do not to whimper. “But…depending on how far we plan to take this…we might want to move it across the hall…unless you happen have some condoms here.”

That time she did whimper. Moving meant letting go, but not moving meant stopping which also meant letting go. “We should go then,” she managed to say, but couldn’t quite manage to move. Duke was more than able to take care of that though. All he’d been waiting for was permission. He lifted her off the couch effortlessly and carried her out the door, pausing to give her a chance to close the door behind them and then into his apartment. He didn’t even care if any of the neighbors were in the hall to see them in the brief few seconds they were there. They were fully dressed anyway. He sat her on the bed, half sitting and half kneeling beside her as he captured her lips with his again and the fire flared back to life. This time when his lips moved to her neck, he didn’t stop, continuing to her shoulder, sliding the thin strap of her tank top to the side to have access to more skin. “A-are you still scared?” she breathed out. 

“Terrified,” he whispered against her skin as his hand slid up the back of her shirt, spreading heat in its wake. 

“Me too,” she admitted, holding him tighter in a clear plea to not stop and he had not intention of doing so. When she felt her shirt being lifted over her head, she pulled away just enough to help him remove it and then she was tugging at his shirt too and it quickly followed. He kissed her energetically as he eased her back onto the bed and she pulled him along with her, shifting underneath him as one of his large hands found it’s way to her breast and his lips trailed down towards the other one. “God…Duke…” she breathed out desperately, hips pressing up unconsciously looking for something…anything. When she felt his other hand at the waistband of her pants she lifted her hips again allowing him to slide them off. 

Duke trailed his hand back up the inside of her bare thighs and when she whimpered and shifted needfully towards his touch, he slid two fingers inside her, letting out a moan at wet she was already and he started kissing his way quickly down her stomach, wanting so badly to taste her. He licked through her folds as his fingers thrust hard and fast inside her and her hand tightened in his hair as she keened and then he replaced his fingers with his tongue as another moan pulled from his throat and echoed through her. It wasn’t long before she was tugging on his hair and gasping out, “Duke…please…need you…” 

She didn’t have to ask him twice. He kicked his pants off and slid back up her body, reaching across her to pull a condom from his bedside table. He quickly opened it with his teeth and rolled it on with one hand before plunging in and stilling. “Fuck…Audrey…” he panted, counting his breaths to pull himself back from the edge. 

“Yes…please,” she whimpered needily and he huffed a breathless laugh, surprised that any level of amusement could cut through the overwhelming lust and love that was crashing over him like a wave in a storm and then he was moving, timing his thrusts with the breaths he was still counting as he buried his face in her neck pressing sloppy kisses over every inch of the skin he could reach before his lips found hers again as his pace picked up and her hands clutched for purchase against his sweat slick skin. “Duke…god…love you,” she gasped, meeting his every motion with a lift of her hips like no amount of closeness would ever be enough. She just needed more. 

“Love you…” Duke replied, voice rough with emotion. “So much…” He could feel her chasing that edge and stopped trying to hold himself back, pounding hard and fast and when she cried out unintelligibly and he felt her walls clenching around him he let out a growling moan as his orgasm was ripped from him. He barely managed to hold himself up on his elbows as he buried his face in her neck trying to catch his breath. 

Audrey ran one hand through Duke’s hair as the other trailed lovingly over his sweat slick back and shoulders as she gasped for breath. “I love you, Duke,” she whispered, wanting to say again what she’d said in the heat of the moment. Wanted…no /needed/ him to know that she meant it. 

He lifted his head up and kissed her soft and slow for as long as he could before his need for breath interfered. “I love you, Audrey,” he returned happily before moving off of her, tossing the used condom in the trash can next to his bed. 

Audrey rolled to her side and curled up next to him, resting her head on his chest, forehead nestled under his chin and arm draped over his stomach. His arm came around her, hand resting on her hip as his other hand trailed over her arm and they just basked in the moment for a long while before Audrey was the one to break it with a question. “We’re not going to have problems at work over this are we?”

Duke barked a laugh and turned to kiss her head. “Given the fact that my dad told me at your party last weekend to pull my head out of my ass and ask you out already, I would have to say no.” 

“He didn’t?” Audrey laughed with him. 

“He did,” Duke confirmed. “Maybe not quite so forceful, but gist was the same.” 

“Well you still haven’t actually asked me out yet, you know,” she joked. 

“Since when do I do as I’m told?” he smirked. 

“Good point,” she shook her head amusedly. “If someone told you to breathe you’d probably die just to spite them.” 

“Probably,” Duke snorted. “Which is why I’m asking you /in/ instead. I’ll cook, we can watch a movie or two, hopefully end up back in here tonight…” 

“The perfect solution to the problem,” she grinned. “I always knew you were a genius.” 

“Why, yes. Yes I am. Thank you for noticing.” They stayed curled up in bed together for another hour and then only got up because they were hungry and the rest of the weekend was spent with the same easy camaraderie as they’d always had, just with a little extra touching and kissing thrown in. They felt like they’d been together forever, it was just that easy.


	8. Chapter 8

Monday morning when Duke and Audrey got to the station, their change of relationship status was obvious to all. Between the way that they were looking at each other and the way they walked in with their arms around each other, there could be no doubt. They ignored all the muttered ‘finally’ and ‘about time’ as they headed to their office and split up to their own desks. It was only about an hour before there was a knock on the door and the chief walked in. “So I heard the rumors, but I also know how much stock to put in rumors, so I’m coming straight to the source. Did you two finally get a clue?” 

Duke and Audrey both laughed and Audrey was the one to answer. “If you mean are we together now, then yes.” 

“It’s about damn time. I was this close to locking you two in a closet until you figured it out,” he joked making them both roll their eyes. “This means you’re coming to the house on Sunday,” he told Audrey. 

“What’s Sunday?” Audrey asked confused looking between Duke and Simon. 

“One Sunday a month Dad and I have a father-son cookout in his backyard,” Duke told her. 

“Oh…I couldn’t intrude…”

“What intrusion? You’re practically family now and it’s a day for family,” Simon told her. “You’re coming,” he ordered. 

“Duke?” she asked, not wanting to agree if he just wanted to spend the day with his dad. 

“I do the cooking so you’ll be safe,” Duke answered her with a joke. 

“Okay. I guess my Sunday is planned then,” she laughed. 

“Good. Duke,” he jerked his head towards his office and Duke rolled his eyes and followed him. The fact that he’d used his first name meant that whatever he wanted wasn’t work related, but he wasn’t sure what it was that couldn’t be said in front of Audrey. 

“What’s up?” Duke asked once Simon closed his office door. 

The chief walked over to his desk and opened a drawer, taking something out that Duke couldn’t see. “Now…I know you’re not going to need this for a while, so don’t freak out on me. But I would rather give it to you too soon than not know you needed it until too late, so here,” he handed him a small box. 

Duke opened it and his eyes widened. “Is that…”

“Your grandmother’s engagement ring,” he confirmed. “Just hold onto it until you’re ready.”

“You’re that sure about Audrey and I?” Duke asked incredulously. 

“Son, I’ve known for months that that ring would be on her finger someday. I have eyes, you know. It’s up to you when that someday is.” 

“I…um…thanks?” Duke was completely caught off guard, both at his father’s surety and the idea of getting married to someone that he’d been dating for two days that had just got shoved into his head.

“Now go get to work and quit wasting my time,” he barked, tone belied by the grin on his face and when Duke just walked out in a daze without a word, he couldn’t help but laugh once he was alone again. 

“Duke? Everything okay?” Audrey asked concerned when he came back in. “What’s that?” she noticed something in his hand. 

That jolted Duke out of his trance and he quickly shoved it in his pocket. “It’s nothing!” 

“Oookay,” Audrey said confused, trying to figure out if this was one of those situations where she should push or back off. 

Duke saw her suspicion and the indecision and realized that he would be better off telling her rather than her finding it at some point and jumping to the wrong conclusion. “My dad just gave me my grandmother’s engagement ring for ‘someday’.” 

“Oh!” Audrey’s eyes widened. “Um…wow…okay…” she stammered, completely understanding his reaction now because she was having the same one. As much as she liked the idea of being married to Duke someday, they had /just/ gotten together and it was too soon for it to be anything but a vague hope for the future. “Well…we can just…forget it for now. Yeah. That’s probably best.”

“Definitely,” Duke agreed. “It’s forgotten. Did you get the info for that drunk and disorderly we were working on?” he changed the subject. 

Thankfully, their awkwardness around each other disappeared by lunch and they really had forgotten about it. Other than Duke moving the ring to his sock drawer when he got home, neither of them thought about it again until about six months later when Duke pulled it out and started making plans to use it. He might have done it a little sooner, but was absolutely /not/ going to be the sappy cliché of proposing around valentine’s day so it waited until March. He considered for a long time how he was going to do it. Neither of them were the type to go for big public gestures, but he did want some pictures for her photo album that was steadily filling up, so he decided to do it during the next family cookout and have his dad standing by to take some pictures. He would just have to hope that the pictures weren’t of him getting his heart stomped on. 

His heart didn’t end up getting stomped on, but he did end up on the ground when she tackled him with her yes. And of course Simon was taking pictures fast enough to get three different shots of the movement and two of the aftermath before his laughter took over too much for his hands to stay steady. Once they had stopped laughing, gotten up off the ground, and gotten the ring in place, Simon took a few more pictures of them posed with Duke behind her, hands around her stomach and her flashing the ring and both of them wearing huge grins. 

“Now that’s settled, there’s something I wanted to talk to the two of you about,” Simon told them. He had just been waiting for this day. 

“What’s that dad?” Duke asked curiously. 

“I want you two to have this house. Consider it a wedding present,” he told them. 

“Do what? We can’t take your house,” Audrey protested. 

“Course you can. It’d go to you when I die anyway. This way you don’t have to wait for me to kick it first,” he said matter-of-factly. 

“Dad,” Duke said wearily.

“Look, this place is too big for just me to putter around in. Only reason I kept it as long as I did was for you. Because I hoped that one day you would have more than just you. This is a house for a family. A place to raise kids,” Simon explained. 

“But where are you going to live?” she asked him. 

“I figure Duke and I can just do a straight swap. I’ll take his apartment. That’s the perfect size for one person,” Simon shrugged. 

“What do you think?” Duke asked Audrey. He could see his father’s point, but wasn’t going to accept if Audrey didn’t agree. They could choose a house together if she would rather. 

“Raise our kids in the same house you grew up in? How could I say no to that?” she chuckled. 

“Great. We’ll get the house signed over and figure out who wants what furniture and go from there,” Simon nodded. 

Duke and Audrey moved into the Crocker family home two months later. A month before the wedding. Neither of them wanted a big wedding. Just a few friends which ended up being about two dozen total. Plus a professional photographer. They had a small ceremony on a cliff overlooking the water and Audrey wore a long white gown while Duke was in a tux as was traditional. Duke had used the wedding as an opportunity to reach out to his brother and ask him to be best man and Audrey chose Laverne as her matron of honor, since she was her closest female friend. The photographer got a few pictures of Duke and Audrey together and a few more with Simon, the only parental figure either of them had who was now to be called Dad by Audrey by his order. Then there were a few of the two of them with Wade and Laverne. 

They had vetoed the fancy reception idea, but did have a party. That started out with the traditional dances. Duke and Audrey did their dance first, full of laughter and fun, but with an undercurrent of pure love. Just as they had always been. Audrey literally cried when Simon asked to do the father-daughter dance with her since she didn’t have a dad of her own. Asking her to call him dad was one thing, but that level of acceptance was something that she never even knew she needed until she had it. For the first time she knew what it must be like to have a parent. She also danced with her new brother after that, glad to see him alive and well again and did what she could to help repair the rift that was already starting to heal just by Wade’s inclusion. It helped that Duke didn’t mention the fact that he hadn’t even been invited to his brother’s wedding, much less to be /in/ it. 

That rift continued to heal over time though and by the time Audrey was pregnant with their first child two years later, Duke and Wade could almost be called brothers again. So much so that Wade and Marcy travelled up to Haven to be present for the birth of their nephew. Simon Duke Crocker. He was followed by Lucy Sarah Crocker two years after that and then a little over a year later, Caspian Dylan Crocker. By the time Audrey came back from maternity leave after Caspian, Simon was talking about retiring to be a full-time grandfather. He was sixty-five after all. Two months later, he handed off the chief of police to Duke leaving Audrey as the only detective. Not that Duke didn’t help her out when she got backed up, which wasn’t very often in peaceful Haven. After retirement, Simon took over keeping the grandkids while Duke and Audrey worked which saved them plenty of money on babysitters. Enough that they finally managed to buy the boat that Duke always wanted. It was nothing like the Cape Rouge that Audrey still remembered. It was a nice family pleasure boat. There were living quarters but not made for long term. It was more like an RV with the master bed and then pull out couches for the kids and Simon. They often took weekends out on the water, and once a year they took a whole week when Duke and Audrey took their vacations. 

When little Si was twenty-five, he married thirty-two-year-old Emily Hansen, Daughter of Nathan and Margot Hansen and by then Audrey was far enough removed from her old life to not be so uncomfortable around the in-laws. The rest of the in-laws from Lucy’s husband and Caspian’s husband weren’t previously known to Audrey so there was nothing to worry about there. Unfortunately, Simon only lived long enough to see his first great-granddaughter be born to his namesake and then passed on a week later at the ripe old age of eighty nine.

Audrey and Duke walked arm in arm into the church to see their sixth grandchild’s christening, though Duke left her for a moment to help Lucy into her seat first. She was having a lot of trouble getting around with her eight-month pregnant stomach and her husband was distracted with their two-year-old. Duke was back a moment later, helping Audrey into her seat too. Neither of them were as young as they used to be. They beamed up at Caspian and his husband Harlan who was holding the two month old baby that they’d used a surrogate for. Little did they know that as they watched the baby be christened, in a nearby town an old acquaintance named Cliff was taking his last breaths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're not in the mood for massive angst, feel free to consider this the end of the story and skip the sequel *Evil grin*


End file.
